The Treaties of Men and Elves
by Blue Eyes At Night
Summary: Sometimes, we must sacrifice that which we love the most for that which we need the most, sometimes what we love must fall from grace before our eyes. This is Lithil's story.
1. Late Mornings

Peace Treaties of Men and Elves  
  
By Blue Eyes at Night (aka BEaN)  
  
Prologue- Late Mornings  
  
The sun rose bright in the morning sky, a deep golden ball against a blue backdrop and many of the elves of Greenwood paused in their work to let the warm light fall onto their faces and embrace them briefly. They would close their eyes and smile before going about their work the rest of the way. The light fought the shadows that lingered from last night and slowly crept into every crevice of the wood.  
  
Even the crevices of the royal bedroom.  
  
A maid with golden hair slowly opened her eyes and admired the sun on her flesh for a moment, then sat bolt upright cursing and muttering to herself angrily. Suddenly two strong arms flew out of the blankets and held her in the bed, "Why so angry at yourself this morning?"  
  
"Because for the third time this week the sun has risen before me and if I don't move quickly my tardiness will be noticed."  
  
The arms pulled her against a chest that could've been a statue; it was so perfectly formed and unblemished that it seemed more a work of art then a being's body. Lips traced the freckles on the maid's shoulder and slowly formed the words, "Let them notice, you are forever running out of my bed before you can settle into it."  
  
For a moment the maid savored the feeling of her lover's lips upon her skin as they were mere hours before but then she popped out of the bed, securing a sheet around her body so that she was at least decent, "Legolas, I am a palace chambermaid and eventually someone has to clean this tunnel you call a home. I am needed, Greenleaf, I must go."  
  
Legolas jumped out of bed, tying the remaining sheets around his waist, and quickly pulled the servant into his arms and held her fast against his body, "Lithil," he purred in her ear, "Whether you go or stay you shall still be in the palace, in a chamber and a maid. You are direly needed here meleth, and someone else can clean. Saes, let me pardon you this once." {love, please)  
  
Lithil brushed a rogue strand of gold away from his deep blue eyes and her will faltered a moment, but then some spark behind them lit, "You act as though I haven't come to your bed three times this week already! Legolas, saes, you promised you would keep us a secret so long as I wished it kept so; saes meleth don't pardon me, don't favor me in front of them. Pretend I'm just a servant to you in the day and I swear I'll make it up to you at night."  
  
Legolas nodded glumly, "I cannot believe that you have convinced me to stay true to this foolish promise for two hundred years."  
  
Smiling at his gloomy agreement she kissed the tip of his nose, before giving his mouth the briefest meeting and running to his door, cracking it open and dashing out into the hall to her own chambers to clean and dress for her day of work.  
  
Feeling slightly melancholy Legolas fell back onto his bed, which still smelled like her and inhaled deeply. He had met her over two hundred years ago and had loved her from the moment he saw her, but every year, every morning after, he began to feel as if she did not love him. She made him keep their affair a secret, she would not let him pamper her or spoil her or flaunt her to his friends.  
  
But then she did love him.  
  
She whispered it to him every night; even if they didn't make love she was always in his arms, never out of them. And yet every time he asked to bind to her she said not yet, not now, please wait dearest and one day you'll understand. He loved her and that was his bane, for he wanted 'that day' to come at last.  
  
Her name was Lithil, she told him, and since they were 50 years old, they had been in love. Twas no crime for a prince to love a pauper, spare maybe in Lithil's own mind. Legolas had questioned their predicament but he never could see why Lithil wanted to hide them.  
  
A sharp knock came to his door.  
  
"Ya naa ta?" {who is it?} He called out.  
  
"Legolas, ta naa nin, adarlle. Let me in." {It is me, your father}  
  
Legolas groaned as he got out of bed and crossed the room to unlock the door, he and his father had never quite seen eye to eye, "Come in, adar."  
  
Legolas knew better then to tell Thranduil to go away, for his father came in no matter whether or not Legolas wanted him to. As the door opened Thranduil stepped into the prince's lavish chambers, father and son looked nearly identical spare that Legolas' features were softer, having not spent so much time in grief like his father had.  
  
"What is it this morning, father? More dwarf conspiracies against you?" Legolas snorted, Thranduil had a slight paranoia about dwarves ever since Legolas' could remember but it had never been mentioned to him as to why. Thranduil stiffened and barked, "How many times have I told you not to jest about the little heathens?"  
  
Legolas paused, "More times then days I have walked this earth, now what is it?"  
  
"You need to get dressed properly for an introduction to royalty visiting this afternoon and I also have an errand for you to run so that you don't ruin your nice robes running through the woods shooting arrows at spiders." Thranduil said all of this very quickly as he crossed to Legolas' closet and withdrew a very intricately designed robe of deep green with golden leaves woven into the fabric, leaves that had fallen on the day Legolas was born and saved until he had turned 50, when they were sewn into the robe and given to him for his coming of age. Legolas hated to wear it, preferring another dress robe that he had to keep hidden under the mattress of his bed to prevent Thranduil from burning it.  
  
Thranduil looked his youngest son sharply in the eye, "You are to wear this robe not the one that you hide away from me, understand? I will be forced to punish you severely if you embarrass me in front of Gray Haven royalty."  
  
"Gray Haven monarchs?" Legolas interrupted.  
  
"Did you not hear me the first time, son? Yes, Gray Haven monarchs who just now sent runners to alert me they were coming." Thranduil pinched the bridge of his nose in an irritated fashion, "You task is one they requested and I have no understanding of why it is to be done, however, to keep you busy you have to hunt down a servant and bring her with you to meet them."  
  
"A servant? Whatever for?"  
  
"If I knew, son, I would tell you but I don't so I won't." Thranduil began walking towards the door, "I don't know her name but they sent a drawing of her said to be excellent likeness."  
  
The old King handed his son a sheet of parchment tied by a golden ribbon and left. As always Legolas felt his head spinning and the coldness and quickness of his father's visit, but quickly overcame it. He was very pleased with his little mission, Lithil could help him find the girl and he could spent time with her. He thought maybe he would try to steal a kiss from her in front of the others, he did love being mischievous when she was around them. For the two hundred years that he had been forced to keep them a secret, he always insisted on reeking his little revenge upon her by ambushing her in empty rooms or corridors, or specially requesting something be brought to his room when it was her month to clean the royal families chambers. Legolas simply loved torturing the poor dear, she wanted secrecy and he didn't and this was his way of making her heart stop when she thought he was going to kiss her in public or profess love to her in public. But he would never break his promise to her, everything he said to her was sacred to him, and he would never actually go against what she so desired.  
  
After pulling on a tunic, figuring to dress in his robes at the last possible moment, he untied the ribbon that was fastened to the parchment and looked at the "excellent likeness" of the servant girl.  
  
His mouth dropped open in shock and the picture floated down to the floor in his shock, the picture was one drawn by his sister, an exceptional artist, on the night that he and Lithil had first consummated their love for each other... The picture was of Lithil.  
  
Why would Gray Haven monarchs wish to see Lithil?  
  
A/N- Hello Daughter of Telcontar fans and other strangers! This is my new pet-fic, though I have to admit I really wanted to write the one about Gilaren, this story has many of the same morals so it's a good warm up to Gilaren. Lithil has been swimming around the ocean of my head for a while and here's the long and short of her: she seems bitchy now but I assure you there is method behind the madness and its good method not whore-method. K, what do you guys think???? 


	2. Hidden

A/N- Here's a second helping, hope everyone didn't judge her by her first appearance, my poor baby. She needs friends, don't hate her, I swear you'll understand  
  
Chapter 1- Hidden  
  
Lithil hummed a melody to herself as she hurriedly did up the back of her dress, despite how quick she was to leave Legolas' bed so early; she was becoming far too lax with her precautions. People couldn't know.  
  
It's not that they wouldn't understand... but they would never understand.  
  
Never mind them, she thought, angry that even though they were so far away they still crept into her mind and controlled her life. They were not merciful.  
  
Lithil shook her head and cleared it of thoughts of them, replacing them with thoughts of her prince. Last night had been one of many where she felt his doubt in her. She acted more like a whore then a lover, she never let him pamper her, not publicly, and she would beg him to keep there perfectly legal affair secret. She could always feel it when he doubted her feelings for him, his lovemaking became desperate and powerful, nearly overwhelming, begging her not to leave him.  
  
But that was impossible. She had been in love with him for so long, separating was out of the question. He was a part of her life, without him she would die. He was her's. Her Legolas, just like her blood, her breath. He was something so basic for her, that it was out of the question completely to leave.  
  
Which was why she risked everything to stay. Staying here was not safe for her, and she knew that she should have moved long ago. Legolas would move with her if she decided to go, she knew that he would follow her, but Lithil knew deep in her heart that he was still in love with Greenwood. The trees that bore him over two hundred years ago still captivated him. She could not tear him from his home yet, it would be cruel. So she stayed, hoping beyond hope that her life's secret would remain just that: a secret.  
  
Contrary to common belief, it did hurt her to keep it. Her soul so longed to bind with his that the concealment, the lie, stabbed at her harshly every second that she went without telling him. But for his sake, for their, sake she would have to endure.  
  
She only hoped that one day she would not regret withholding her not-so- little secret from him, but he couldn't possibly understand; dislike his father as he may, he could not her position with those that haunted her every waking dream.  
  
A hiss escaped her lips as a ghost pain shot through her cheek and mouth and Lithil nibbled her lip lightly, biting over the scar that was hanging off the corner of her mouth as though it were a pearlescent tear that would never fall.  
  
No, she would never tell her love her secret so long as she could keep it hidden. A/N- Short, I know, I seem to be suffering from terrible bad Writer Disease called short chapters. Unfortunately there is no cure; I'll just have to snap out of it. 


	3. The Tunic

Chapter 2- The Tunic  
  
It was a riddle, this visit. Legolas thought, a riddle as to their reason. It was baffling him as he pulled on a tunic of green and beige. It was old, ripped, worn in and smelled like it had had better days, but he loved it. He had been wearing it for years and he would wear it until it disintegrated off of his body. Lithil had made if for him. She was a talented little seamstress. His father rolled his eyes at Legolas whenever he went prancing about Greenwood in this tunic, his bow and arrow strapped across his back, ready to kill the first foul thing that got in his way. It made him feel..more powerful, wearing that tunic. It made him feel like Lithil was near him and he needed to protect her. It made him more fierce, less forgiving, more ruthless. More deadly. He liked it. He remembered the first time he had worn it:  
  
***FLASHBACK***  
  
They had only been together a few weeks and their love was still shaky. They were only fifty years old but that was no matter, it was the age that elven romances tended to begin. They had known each other for years, Lithil had begun working for the Greenleaf's when she was 30 and in that twenty years so much had happened, so much brought them closer and closer until they had finally admitted to each other what they each felt all along. They had been lovers once, that first night that they had professed love but since then they had taken the shy route for romance.  
  
The two would ambush each other in alleys and empty rooms, kiss and touch and explore each other as much as they could until they were caught. But nothing more serious. Lithil was timid around him, she came to his room at night and asked to be held, nothing more, nothing less and the young Legolas was happy to give in. He couldn't deny, though, that he wanted more. A few short weeks ago he had felt for the first time the power and beauty of connecting seamlessly to another being, of being so utterly absorbed in love that all else faded into shadows in the back of your mind. His body ached for the experience but his heart dared not press further then Lithil wished.  
  
He never voiced his concerns, but he thought he may have hurt her, thought maybe, as his sister had confided in him once when his curiosity had reached its limit, that the first time was not nearly so pleasurable for the female as the male. He wanted her to feel like he had that night, he wanted her to be so utterly placated that she never wanted to move again but she was not interested in making love with him again so he didn't push her.  
  
They had good conversations and wonderful moments of adolescent awkwardness when he would be staring at her in frank desire and adoration and she would blush and give in for a time before pushing him away. But he was beginning to worry, beginning to think that she didn't love him as she claimed and they had a terrible fight. Legolas claimed that she had lied to him, was leading him on and she claimed he only wanted sex from her that he could not stand to go without it. They didn't talk for three days and they ignored each other when their paths happened to cross. He enrolled himself in an amateur archer's competition that involved running and riding through the woods and hitting various targets at various degrees of difficulty to hit. He was the youngest entry and everyone thought him so brave to enter with so little experience, thought him so confident and skilled. He was just lonely and the competition took up time that would've gone to thinking about Lithil.  
  
He missed her. It was that simple. He had spoken foolishly to her, though he had questioned her love for him he needn't have put it so harshly and she was right, he had been straining for more physical closeness then she was willing to give right now. He was sorry, he truly wanted to apologize but his pride wouldn't let him. His pride said she would make a fool out of him and he didn't want to stand for it. She knew that he wanted her whether for love or lust; his readiness for commitment was not being tested. If she wanted him back, let her come forward.  
  
And she did.  
  
The night before the competition he sat on his windowsill, looking at the moon and drinking a glass of wine from a bottle he had taken from his father's cellar. Thranduil had not been much of a father to his youngest son but he was a connoisseur of fine wine and Legolas trusted his choices on it. It was a pale silver color and tasted a bit bitter, perfect for his mood. Just as he was truly beginning to savor it, a knock came to his door and he couldn't think of who would wish to see him at this hour.  
  
"Ya naa ta?" {Who is it?}  
  
"Ta naa nin." {It's me.} He recognized her voice and his grip on his glass tightened but he couldn't decipher whether it was in hope or anger.  
  
He crossed over to the door and leaned his head against the wood, "Mani naa ta lle merne?" {What is it you want?}  
  
"Saes, Legolas, let me in." {please} Her voice was quiet, barely a whisper but a solid plea.  
  
He unlocked the door and let it open and stood facing her, despite their feud and his questions about her feelings, he couldn't help but see how beautiful she was. Her hair was loosely braided and some ends had worked their way free, her eyes did not possess their normal shine, there was nervousness behind them that her whole body was radiating. He could feel her nerves coming off of her like waves onto a shore; he could smell a hint of fear. Also a hint of flowers, that delicacy that she emitted. And something about how her cheeks held a blush reminded him of their lovemaking those weeks ago. The look of trepidation and longing fused together, the feel of her moist skin against his, the scent of womanhood and sex drowning him.  
  
He collected his thoughts, chastising himself, 'Fool of an elf. You're still in love with her.'  
  
She smiled at him, "I'm surprised you opened the door."  
  
"Why are you here, Lithil?"  
  
She looked over her shoulder both way and craned her neck to check the halls for witnesses and adjusted a parcel in her arms, "May I come in? I promise I won't stay long."  
  
"Afraid of witnesses?" He asked looking where she had looked, wondering is their were others watching this exchange.  
  
"If we are going to discuss our ..situation, I would rather it be private." Her voice was low and unsure, not like her. Normally she would talk swiftly but charmingly, confidently and she wore the look that everything she said should be trusted. That confidence had left her this night.  
  
Legolas opened the door wider and stood to the side so she could come in, of course she had been in his room before but she glanced around, looking to see if anything had changed and her eyes fell on the wine bottle on a table, "Taking after your father?"  
  
Legolas snorted, "Never, but he has good taste in wine."  
  
She ran a finger over the smooth glass, "I never knew you to be much of a drinker."  
  
"I needed it tonight."  
  
"Mankoi?" {Why?} She looked at his eyes, asking silently if he was hurt, was he upset, did something awful happen that he craved the drink and he had to give her a weak smile, she had driven him to it.  
  
"Lle, Im milye lle." {You, I miss you} He bowed his head as he said it, it was true but he was embarrassed to be bearing his heart to her again. He wished he could be cold and distant to her, wished he could find out her feelings before admitting his own again but he was a fool for her.  
  
Her eyes met his, "Im milye lle ikotane Legolas." {I missed you so}  
  
Legolas set his glass on the table and gestured to the bottled, offering her some and she nodded. They were in agreement on one part, they had both missed each other and that was a start. She put her parcel on the table and accepted the glass from him, sipping slowly and gave an approving moan as the liquid reached her lips, "It's very good."  
  
"I told you, my father is to be trusted on matters of wine." Legolas took a deep gulp and placed his empty glass on the table, "Why are you here besides commenting on wine and loneliness?"  
  
"To make amends, hopefully."  
  
She put her glass down and took a step closer to him, the space between their bodies was limited, "We need to talk about our fight."  
  
He nodded, "Yes we do."  
  
"I said I doubted that you cared about me, and I was wrong. You come on strong Legolas, but I know you meant no disrespect by it. I know you wouldn't use me as a..a whore. I'm sorry. I was afraid to loose you so I pushed you away. If you weren't mine then you could not leave me but...but I missed coming here at night. I miss running into you in that halls and disappearing for a time." She bowed her head respectfully at him, "I miss you, my prince, I'm sorry."  
  
"You are not the only one to blame, dearest." Legolas put a hand on the nape of her neck and drew her close to him, holding her gently against him, "I should not have said what I did in the way that I did. You pushed me away and I thought it was because you didn't love me, but that was no reason to shout at you." He brushed a kiss on the top of her head, "I am sorry I doubted you, Lithil."  
  
Their lips met shyly, their feud forgotten and forgiveness bestowed. Legolas cupped her face in his hand and wondered at its fragileness. He knew from experience that Lithil was delicate. Her skin bruised easily if he kissed her too hard, her form moved easily under his strength and for some reason it became apparent to him how easy it would be to break her. To hurt her. A fierce swell of protectiveness intoxicated him; no one would hurt his slender flower.  
  
She pulled away from him, her eyes had regained their shine and she smiled at him, "I brought you something. To make amends but that seems unnecessary now."  
  
He eyed the parcel and a part of his was excited like a child at their birthday, he wondered what it was and she carefully opened it saying, "Close your eyes."  
  
He obeyed but said, "Nothing good ever came of me closing my eyes through out my youth."  
  
Lithil laughed, "That's because you have two wicked brothers not keep them shut."  
  
He felt the buttons on his nightshirt unfasten and he shuddered, "What are you doing?"  
  
The shirt was unfastened and she pulled it over his head and let it drop, his blood raced and heated and he tried to control himself but his interests were peaked, "Does this involve all of my clothes coming off?" He asked with a hopeful grin.  
  
In answer Lithil put one of his arms into a sleeve of some sort and preceded to put the other in another sleeve, she pulled the fabric across his chest and muttered, "It's a little big for you."  
  
He felt buttons being hooked and wanted to open his eyes but he didn't, he didn't want to ruin her fun after all. She took his hand and led him to his bed, she had him lay back and unlaced his britches and his voice was pleading, "May I open my eyes now?"  
  
"Not yet." His body was reacting to her, hoping that she would give him what he wanted but she merely giggled, "Control yourself, my princeling."  
  
"Princeling? For that I will have to wreak sweet revenge upon you later Lithil." He voice was deep and full of playful mischief, she knew what kind of revenge he would wreak and she looked forward to it.  
  
She pulled his sleeping britches off and pulled new ones on, lacing them before leaning over Legolas and kissing his nose, "Open your eyes, now, princeling."  
  
At his brother's teasing name for him he opened his eyes and caught her mouth, nibbling on her bottom lip for a moment before hissing teasingly, "You're just begging to be tormented aren't you?"  
  
She bit her lip as she smiled and for a moment he noticed her scar, a small teardrop on the corner of her mouth that in twenty years was settling into a light pink color. He knew it would get lighter still but he wondered where it came from. Lithil grabbed his hand and pulled him up from his bed and hauled him like a stubborn ass over to the mirror in his room.  
  
A tunic. A hunting tunic. She had sewn him a very nice tunic. Green and beige with golden leaves on the leggings. It was well made and comfortable, it breathed well and the fabric was soft, it felt like it would be broken in easily.  
  
"Do you like it?" She asked nervously, "I thought you could wear a proper tunic tomorrow instead of one of those overly royal ones that Thranduil pushes on you. Something comfortable, natural so that you can savagely beat the unsuspecting nobles at their own sport."  
  
She rested her chin in his shoulder and he brought it to his mouth and favored it long and lovingly, "I love it as much as I love you."  
  
***End Flashback***  
  
Legolas stretched like a cat in the sun in his tunic and stood up, the tunic fit better now, he had filled out since she had made it, it was even a little tight but she would have to team up with Thranduil, wrestle him to the ground and rip it from it and burn it for him to give it up. It was good luck, he had never missed a mark while wearing it.  
  
And he didn't plan on starting to miss now.  
  
He picked up the portrait of Lithil and left his room expecting to have a leisurely day in front of him. He would get to stare at Lithil instead of listening to Thranduil bore the visiting royals and he could probably manage to get seated next to her. What fun it would be, slipping a hand up her skirts and watching her try to keep her composure.  
  
Little did he know that his leisurely day had ended when he had walked out of his rooms.  
  
A/N- that's what the teacher calls foreshadowing ( A little longer and I'm probably gonna hear it from some of you that I didn't update Le first but Lithil has been neglected. Ok well its midnight and I didn't feel 100% today or last night not to mention I'm looking History and English note taking tomorrow which will consume my entire day. What do you think? Are they cute or too lemony? I swear it won't stay lemony for long, enjoy it while you can. Opps, more foreshadowing. 


	4. A Harmless Flower

A/N- I'mmmm back! Woohoo! It's like I'm rising from the dead, I've been away from all my ficcys for too long. Just to let you guys in on my weird methods, if I haven't been writing for a while I re-read my stories and usually I write whatever comes to mind and so I was listening to some tasteful music (AC-DC, The Cranberries, Video Killed the Radio Star, REM and other light classics ( ) and re-reading all my running fics, and this popped into my mind for this fic. Its short but who cares? Its One mini chapter more of the story then before right? Okay, enough of me jabbering, more Lithil! BTW- bonus cookies to anyone who can tell me what movie all of those bands sang in!  
  
Chapter 3- A Harmless Flower  
  
Lithil was supposedly dusting the King's conference room. Ha! Dusting a room the size of the aforementioned room would take her at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half. She wasn't complaining about the time, there were rooms in Greenwood's palace that took twice as long to dust; she was more disturbed by whereabouts of the room.  
  
A good portion of Thranduil's palace was underground, which was odd to begin with considering that it was an elven palace. Most elves had an allergy of the underground, for lack of a better term. They needed, they craved the open space and the skies above their heads, the grass below their feet. Thranduil, however, was not a normal elf; his over fondness for wine and his habitual hording of jewels attested to that. As if people didn't whisper enough about Oropher's heir, Thranduil built his palace, the last Sindarin refuge, underground. Which was well and good for him he didn't seem to mind it at all. All of his children and even his late wife were strangely comfortable above and below the earth.  
  
Lithil was not, even after 200 years of service to Thranduil, acclimated to working for long periods below the earth. She felt like she was suffocating, the air would close in on her and press against her ears and every breath she took felt like it was coating her lungs in dust and dirt. Not to mention the ghastly image behind her eyes every time she went below ground for too long, the horrible memories that swamped her. All the voices screaming, all the bodies running. Her legs still tensed, ready to take off at a moments notice whenever she was put beneath the ground. A knot formed in her stomach and she kept her eyes wide open, closing them would do her no good, all she would see would be shadow...shadow and flame and blood..the smell of burnt flesh and hair assaulted her nose and she flung the memories away and was simply left with her back against the outer hall of the palace.  
  
Legolas' room was above ground, something she was explicitly grateful for, she couldn't bear to have nightmares when she was in his arms, it would ruin their love affair if she could never be at peace with him.  
  
A small smile crept across her face erasing her previous discomfort, she was forever leaping out of Legolas' bed to make sure that she wasn't noticeably late for her duties but as soon as they assigned her to the conference room she skived off faster then she could actually realize that she was skiving off. Legolas would throw a royal fit if he knew she was just walking aimlessly around the palace corridors instead of using her self appointed free time to drive him mad.  
  
It was best to find him, she thought, both of us could benefit from an hour or so alone.  
  
She skipped to the gardens which were the quickest way to get to his chambers from the conference room; the garden path leads to the royal entrance from the front road. She stopped to admire a few blooms in the garden before continuing to journey toward the front entrance. She let her eyes follow the line of flowers along the edge of the path as she made her way to the door.  
  
Then she stopped dead, her heart sank to her ankles.  
  
She simply stared at the small white flower lying harmlessly on the dirt path for several long moments before a strong arm grabbed her around her waist and a calloused archer's hand covered her eyes. Lithil jumped nearly out of her skin and her heart raced but her horror left her as she heard Legolas' silky voice in her ear, "Guess who?"  
  
"What are you doing here? I thought you'd still be abed." Her voice failed to hide the hint of fear that clutched her heart.  
  
"You did wear me out but I was promptly woken by my father."  
  
His hand was still covering her eyes she tried to push them away, "May I be allowed to look at you?"  
  
"You still didn't guess who." He teased her to which she playfully slapped his arm and said, "Legolas you great fool of a princeling let me go!"  
  
He released her but the look in his eye said that she would be punished for her little venture into his childhood nickname, his punishment was something she would undoubtedly savor, she always did.  
  
"You'll pay for that." Legolas smirked at her.  
  
"You always say that and yet I've never been punished severely enough to teach me to stop it." She quipped.  
  
He drew her close and his breathe tickled her ear as whispered, "I'll have you on your knees begging me to stop tonight if you insist on bringing up my brothers' nickname for me any longer."  
  
"Why would I ever beg you to stop?" Lithil teased causing her lover's eyes to cloud over slightly and he pulled her closer then she already was, "Not here, saes, meleth." (please, love)  
  
"Tereva." (fine) He rolled his eyes before holding her gaze with a rare show of complete rock-hard resolution, "But, dammit, I will make you my wife and then it's public affection *nonstop*, do you hear me?"  
  
"Nonstop until I give you an heir to play with." She nodded; though she knew it would be a difficult path for them to take and she fully dreaded the day when they had to tackle that obstacle, she always saw them binding and having a family. She saw her as his doting wife, clipping him on the ear if he acted stupidly before spoiling him with attention.  
  
They both took a moment to smile at Lithil's comment, took a second to fully take in the idea of what a child of theirs would do to its grandfather's palace and Legolas' chuckled first, "Adar would probably make us move to Rivendell so Elrond would have to deal with the little terror."  
  
"Little terror?" Lithil raised an eyebrow, "And why would you describe our future child like that?"  
  
"Frankly, what else is it going to be with us for parents?"  
  
Lithil raised her nose pretending to be one of the snooty court girls, "I, Prince, have never been a terror."  
  
"That's a blatant lie you've terrorized me for years." He quickly kissed her cheek and looked down so she wouldn't scold him.  
  
It was then that he saw a small blossom in the middle of the path and bent to retrieve it. Lithil's heart immediately started racing when she saw it in his hand and had the urge to slap it away but that would cause no end of inquiries she didn't care to face. The prince examined the flower but it was strange to him.  
  
"I wonder what it is?" He mused, "It's pretty."  
  
"It's Simbelmyne and it's cursed." She turned so he couldn't see the fear and hate rising behind her eyes.  
  
"Cursed? What could curse such a harmless little bloom?"  
  
"It foretells doom."  
  
"How? It looks so innocent, how can it tell anyone of doom?"  
  
"Because it can only grow on the ground where the dead sleep. If Simbelmyne sprouts in your garden, an ill fate lays ahead for you."  
  
Legolas let the bloom fall from his hand, the tremble in Lithil's voice betrayed her fear and hate of the flower, "What's wrong, meleth?" (love)  
  
She shook her head, "Kai." (nothing.)  
  
Legolas knew that was a lie but if she didn't want to talk he wouldn't pressure her, he laced their fingers together despite the fit Lithil would have if anyone saw them. He led her through the door and walked with her for a time, eventually leading her up to his room.  
  
Lithil popped herself out of her reverie, "What was it that Thranduil talked to you about this morning? You said he came to see you."  
  
"He asked me to bring you with me to a dinner tonight."  
  
"I want to know the truth Legolas, don't jest with me."  
  
"I'm not! I swear on my mother's grave that he told me to bring you to a dinner tonight."  
  
"Asked for me by name?"  
  
"More or less." Legolas didn't want Lithil thinking too hard on the picture, she seemed to be thinking about every problem in the world, why lay another on her shoulders?  
  
"Do you think this is good or bad?"  
  
"I couldn't tell." Legolas was suddenly gripped by the fear that something ill had happened and he gripped Lithil against him, "*Nothing* is going to happen to us, meleth, I won't let it."  
  
Lithil smiled and snuggled against him, "I know you won't."  
  
A/N- Yeah I know pathetically short. And I have an announcement that I'm rather proud of even though it doesn't make sense to any of you at this point in time:: This chapter contains all three identities!  
  
When that makes sense believe me you'll come back to this chapter and say, damn they are all there! Well I'm off to go watch Timeline, I'll tell you all how it is!  
  
Review please!! I miss hearing everyone's comments! Please????? *Legolas pouty expression and puppy eyes* 


	5. The Portrait's Fate

A/N- I re-read the last chapter of this fic and was greatly inspired to write this chapter. Although I'm writing a LOTR fanfiction I'm listening to Thug Mansion Remix, is that mixing genres? Lol.  
  
BY THE WAY- I am using the same names for Legolas' siblings that I have used in Daughter of Telcontar simply because its convenient.  
  
Chapter 4- The Portrait's Fate  
  
Legolas locked the door to his chambers after he and Lithil entered. She sighed and shook her head as if trying to shake out a bad thought, then she turned and motioned to the door.  
  
"Why are you locking the door?" Her smile was mischievous, playful where a moment ago she had been brooding and frightened.  
  
"It would be troublesome if one of my family members traipsed in without knocking, as they are prone to do, and caught us in bed and made me explain two hundred years of concealment. You've no idea how frightening my sister can be when she's playing the inquisitor."  
  
"What makes you think that we're going to be in bed?" Lithil crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air in mock snobbery, "Do you mean to impugn my honor by suggesting that I would allow such promiscuous behavior?"  
  
Legolas crossed the room and swung her into his arms and they both laughed as he carried her over to the bed, "If impugning your honor implies striping you bear and laying you down then yes, yes I am."  
  
She met his lips and gripped his tunic so that she could pull him closer to her, however in doing do she caused something to fall from his pocket and land on the soft bed. Lithil hadn't noticed at first but when she laid flat on her back she half laid on it and the crinkling of paper caught her attention. Gently pushing Legolas off of her she picked up the portrait of her and whispered, "Legolas....I haven't seen this in over two hundred years."  
  
He came up beside her, laying on his side and gazing over her shoulder at the parchment, "Yes, my sister drew it. It has been very long indeed since I've seen Salethine's artwork. Yours was the first and last portrait she did after my mother died, I've never seen her pic up her charcoals nor brushes again."  
  
Lithil concentrated on Legolas' words for a moment so that she could postpone the reality that the portrait brought crashing down on her, "Tis a pity, she was a great artist."  
  
"Aye, very great. Seems such a shame to waste such skill." Legolas bowed his head as if lost in thought and was quiet.  
  
Lithil tolerate this for a few moments before nervously clearing her throat, her hands shaking as they held the picture hoping beyond hope that she was mistaken, "Legolas, this picture was taken out of Greenwood, wasn't it?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.} he nodded absently.  
  
"Where was it sent?"  
  
"My sister took it to the Grey Havens when she bid farewell to my grandfather."  
  
"The portrait never returned to Greenwood until now, correct?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.}  
  
With every agreement Legolas made with her memories her hands shook more, her voice trembled more, tears threatened to fall more and Legolas noticed her distress more.  
  
"What's wrong, my love?" He asked her, gently cupping her face and trying to find what caused her reaction to the portrait.  
  
"What did she do with it?"  
  
"She gave it away."  
  
"I never found out to whom. Will you please tell me?" Lithil's voice was quiet but pleading, begging him to be acquiescent to her request.  
  
Legolas searched his memory, "She never told me, or I never asked. We were fighting terribly at the time she left; we made up and were fighting again by the time she returned. She returned at the time when you first refused to bind to me....the rest of the world was unimportant to me."  
  
She made him stare into her eyes for the next few intense minutes, all her past ghosts were coming back to haunt her, "Do you know how it came to travel all the way back to Mirkwood from the Grey Havens?"  
  
"Uma." {Yes.} He was quiet, pensive with his answers, almost afraid to know what had so upset her, never had he seen her so near her breaking point. Behind her eyes he could see the same cold hand of utter dread warp itself around her, the last time this had happened he had come so close to loosing her that he realized he loved her. When they were thirty years old or so and she had nearly faded into complete hysteria and then faded completely from the world he had realized that her death would destroy him.  
  
The realization of his love for her was biting viciously at him now, he was not anxious to once more hold her hand as he pleaded with her to stay in this world. Doing that once was one time too many for their eternity together.  
  
"How did this portrait come to be here Legolas?" A stony will was set in her voice, if he lied or jested with her now it would crack her patience.  
  
"The Grey Haven monarchs brought it to my father and asked that he summon this servant to meet with them tonight at dinner."  
  
All color left her cheeks, all life left her eyes, all joy fled her soul and she simply stood up and walked to his door. He called out to her, ran to her but she didn't respond to him under he grabbed her and shook her, "Lithil where are you going?! What's wrong?! Please tell me! Talk to me! My love speak to me!"  
  
Her eyes weren't focused on him no matter what he did and she merely whispered, "I need to dress, I need to get ready."  
  
After several minutes of that response Legolas gave up, he let go of her and gripped the bridge of his nose as if to relieve some of the tension that had suddenly welled up inside of his head. If she wanted to play the game he would play with her, "You've nothing to wear, darling, you need a gown."  
  
"I have one, I need to go dress now. Dinner is soon."  
  
She opened the door and showed life for a moment by dashing down the halls. He sprinted after her, intent on not having her run away from this but she ran straight to her room and flung open the door. It was as if she couldn't hear him yelling her name right behind her, as if she couldn't see him so close to her.  
  
Lithil opened a trunk at the foot of her bed and dug inside of it until she found the bottom and when she found a small chip in the wood she pried at it until it gave way to a secret compartment on the bottom. Inside which, folded and untouched for what seemed like a very long time, was a grey velvet gown with a lowly cut neck adorned with intricate silver sewn into the fabric. The sleeves were long and belled and their tips had the same silver pattern, the belt was thickly silver, interlaced which so many delicate strands that it would've taken even an elvish seamstress a year to make. This was a gown of royalty, even his own sister did not own dresses of this caliber, his mother had had a scarce few that she had almost never worn.  
  
How had Lithil come by this dress? Surely she'd not stolen it... or had she?  
  
She held the gown in front of her, she was shaking so badly he thought she was going to faint but out of no where her convulsions stopped and she merely stared at herself in the mirror. Then she laid the gown carefully as a newborn babe on the bed and when again to her trunk and pulled, from the same secret compartment, a simple silver circlet and a necklace with just a chain and a small flower on it. The flower was made of silver and white glass and looked identical to the one she had been so afraid of such a short time ago.  
  
"Lithil.wherever did you get these things?" He awed. The craftsmanship of the jewelry was unmistakable for one raised under a jewel-hoarders careful eye. Thranduil would've loved to examine the diamond in the middle of the flower to see what grade it was.  
  
Lithil's frown was unmistakable and a tear fell down her cheek, her voice was dark and thick as she responded, "They're mine."  
  
A/N- look for the next chapter: Simbelmyne. The Death Flower 


	6. Simbelmyne, The Death Flower

Chapter 5- Simbelmyne, the Death Flower  
  
As she stared at the frock and jewelry it only broke her heart more, long ago these things had been given to her and she had locked them away. She had buried them along with her memories, along with a large part of herself and she had not planned to unearth them so early.  
  
They were here. In Greenwood. In her home. They were probably in the palace right now. The thought sickened her to no end and she felt incredibly numb. Had they not left her alone for so many years? For nearly two hundred years had they not stayed in the Havens?  
  
Behind her Legolas had been trying to understand what was wrong, she could feel his panic and concern for her inside of her own heart and she turned to him.  
  
"Do you know where Simbelmyne grows?"  
  
He looked shocked, confused, "N'uma." {No.}  
  
"It grows over the tombs of the dead in Rohan and other lands in the South. Gondor's plains hold the flower sometimes. It grows in the Gray Havens."  
  
"How can it grow there? There is no death there." Legolas' voice was low and he had walked up behind her, was stroking her arms trying to comfort her and soothe her, "There are no tombs in elvish lands."  
  
"It does not grow there naturally. Twas planted there."  
  
"Why?"  
  
She turned to face him and began straightening his tunic compulsively, pulling loose threads and such, "Nearly two hundred years ago the proud monarchs of the Havens had their fifth child. They had two strong sons alive and two long dead from the Last Alliance and were welcoming their first daughter. At birth they named her Lithil for the moonbeams in her eyes and hair and they pampered her as all young princesses are pampered. Gowns and jewels were made for her and she was loved throughout the land. The Havens did not send news of their child to all the elvish realms for the Havens were so far to travel to; instead they sent word of their joyous arrival to the human realms of Gondor and Rohan. Of course, Rohan did not know how to welcome an elvish child, they thought elves were in some way evil because of the dark tales they had heard of Galadriel. But the Steward of Gondor thought differently. His men were still defending their homes from Sauron, his orcs were still ravishing their lands of Osgiliath and Ithilien when they could and the Steward saw in Middle Earth's future another war between Sauron and the free peoples of Middle Earth. He knew that the elves had helped win the war the last time and that they would need such an alliance again. He presented this alliance to the Haven's monarchs and they agreed. They had lost two other sons in the Last Alliance but saw the need for elves and men to stand together. So they promised their daughter be given to the Steward's son when the boy was of age. Lithil was a babe and couldn't defend her interests and so the pact was made. Seventeen years later the elfling was given a magnificent wedding dress and a crown and sent on horseback to Gondor to wed. She was young for the elves but the humans had insisted on marrying at the Steward's convenience, not the princess'. The Steward, in secret, also hoped to gain a crown for his son because Stewards are not kings, only caretakers of the throne. And so the young princess came to Gondor, little more then a babe, to marry."  
  
"Oh Lithil I never.." But Lithil put her fingers against his lips, "Don't you want to hear the rest of the story?"  
  
Legolas nodded and she continued, becoming for and more saddened as she did, "As the princess walked down the aisle she saw that her husband was to be this large burly man and everything about him that was alien to her frightened her. He was not as tall as the elves but far more bulky, he had too much hair that flew about him in unruly black curls. Lithil had never seen an elf with dark nor curly hair and this disturbed her. His voice was deep and gruff not smooth. She was so frightened and she ran away from the ceremony, fearful of what was surely an evil beast. Her parents scolded her and said she had shamed them and the wedding ceremony was skipped, the parents had convinced the Steward and his son not to be too offended and they sent Lithil to her Lord's chambers for her wedding night. She was more afraid and she cried out and screamed and ran from him before he could do more then kiss her. She ran out of Gondor and mounted her horse and rode home, confused and crying and frightened more then she had ever been."  
  
Lithil paused and heaved a great sigh, "When her parents returned to the Havens they were enraged that the engagement was broken and they flung a bouquet of flowers at her, a 'gift' from her fiancé. They were Simbelmyne and the giving of them symbolized that the alliance was dead. They would only address her by her shame for three of the longest years of her life before they were tired of looking at her. They began to plant Simbelmyne in their gardens as a sign of ill will towards their daughter. She was utterly disowned and hated throughout her family, two of their four sons had died to preserve an alliance between men and elves and she had soiled it with her childish ways. They exiled her under pain of death and never uttered her true name again...  
  
When she nearly died of exhaustion the elves of Lothlorien found her, among them a Queen of Greenwood. She told them that she had been banished under false charges from her home in the Grey Havens, that she was a servant girl. Galadriel sensed her lie, but the Lady had respected her decision and never revealed the girl's true identity. She stayed with Galadriel for a time and the Lady assured her the running from such an act that was so against the Elvish Code was in no way grounds for exile, that Lithil had been justified. The Queen of Greenwood pitied Lithil and she took the girl on as a Queen's maid. The girl traveled back to Greenwood, the farthest away she could go from her home in the Havens, going by the name Lithil once more. The Queen introduced Lithil to her youngest child, the Prince Legolas, who was only five years Lithil's senior and the children got on well enough, he was Lithil's first honest playmate and they became fast friends. In ten years the Queen was going to journey to Lothlorien and she brought her maid with her. There the Lady Galadriel gifted Lithil with three things: a gown, a crown and a necklace with a glass blown Simbelmyne blossom. The Lady asked that the girl try to sort things out with her family and these gifts were nods in that direction. Lithil accepted the gifts but hated the memory of being Simbelmyne the Traitor, Simbelmyne the Cursed Princess, Simbelmyne whom her parents would kill if she ever set foot in her homeland again. On the way back from Lothlorien the company fell into ill circumstances and many were killed, including the Queen. When Lithil finally returned to Greenwood she was fading and hysterical, only the companionship of the youngest prince saved her. Twenty years later, he professed his love for her and she admitted that she loved him. But he only knew the servant, only knew Lithil. He knew nothing of Princess Simbelmyne and she loved everything about him: the prince, the archer, the mischievous elfling and the grown elf inside of him."  
  
She looked into Legolas eyes very deeply so that he would grasp her words and truly understand the answer to the question he had been asking for two hundred years, "That is why when he asked her to bind to him she refused, because she needed him to love Simbelmyne as well as Lithil but she was too frightened of her parents, too ashamed of her past to dare reveal it. She knew that if she married royalty her parents would find out, they would seek her out and she would need to confront them again and she had been warned that to see their faces again would be the ill omen of her name. That death, if not something more cruel then death, would befall her. And so she and her prince were secret lovers for nearly two hundred years before they found her again. And she is terrified that they mean to harm her again."  
  
Lithil broken into sobs that racked her entire body and Legolas merely held her and stroked her back, still trying to absorb and understand all that had happened. All he knew was that there were people who might do his love harm, and he would die before she was taken from him.  
  
Or he would kill them to keep her.  
  
A/N- Meet the Secret, Simbelmyne. R/R!! Please!! 


	7. The Shamed Princess

A/N- its been awhile hasn't it? Well since D.O.T is coming to an end....figured that its descendant should start stretching its wings again.  
  
Chapter 6- The Shamed Princess  
  
Legolas helped Lithil to dress and helped her twist her hair up behind her neck delicately. She put the chain bearing the flower around her throat with trembling fingers that couldn't clasp it; it distressed him greatly that his love was so distraught. They returned to his chambers and he sighed when the door closed behind them. All the playfulness he had intended for them today had shattered like thin glass and now he could only look at the shards and wonder at the design it once held.   
  
He slipped into the green and gold leaved tunic on his bed, at least his father would be pleased with that, and let Lithil re-braid his hair and loop it up in the back, it gave her something to do besides fret and she even managed a smile when he flinched at a knot, "Your such a child, it's a tiny knot."  
  
With his crown high on his brow he looked the part of prince and next to him, her silver gown a sharp contrast to his gold, they looked like an autumn king and winter queen, they looked refined and beautiful. He had envisioned her dressed finely so many times...and now his first glimpse of it was tainted.  
  
She sat on his bed, her fingers restlessly fidgeting, trying to find something to do, "Dinner is soon," she said worriedly, biting at her scared lip.  
  
"Its too early for that, meleth. It's the early afternoon."  
  
"I know my parents; they will summon us soon, any moment now. Dinner to them was never about the meal, it's about the politics, the talk. Their dinner parties start when most are resting for their noon meal and do not end until it is late."  
  
Suddenly she hissed and gripped one side of her face.  
  
"Mani naa ta, meleth?" {What is it, love?} Legolas asked, searching for the source of her pain.  
  
"Phantom pain, dearest. Old pain. It hurts whenever I think about them...it shall probably throb and bruise in their presence."  
  
He regarded the teardrop that had been so mysterious to him for so long, "They gave that to you." It was not so much a question as a realization.  
  
"Uma," {Yes} She nodded, "When they exiled me they hurled me from the steps of our palace and I fell all the way down. The marble knocked out a few of my first teeth and cut me, my face was bruised and sore for weeks."  
  
Every muscle in Legolas' arm was tensed, ready for the fight, ready to protect her, to defend her, but alas there was no enemy yet.  
  
"Why do you think they've come?" He asked, "They've never troubled you before, have they?"  
  
Lithil slowly shook her head, "N'uma....I do not know. I do not think they would come for blood or for reconciliation. They want something....I wish I knew what."  
  
Then she blanched, recalling how horribly they had treated her and gripped Legolas' hand, "I take it back....I don't want to know. I never want to know."  
  
She turned and flung herself into his arms madly begging him, "Take me away from here, take me far, far away from them where they shan't find us. We'll bind and live and have our family and we shall leave them alone, we will never need know what they have come for."  
  
"I think it obvious that they've come for you....but why? Why now?" Legolas absently stroked her hair.  
  
She pulled away and sank to his bed as if her knees could no longer support her, "Elbereth......we should have bonded. I should have agreed and damn them if they found out! It would have been too late.....why was I such a fool?" She buried her head in her hands.  
  
Legolas sat beside her and pulled her against him gently, "Shhhhh, shhhhh. Dearest, it is never too late. We shall bind tonight then, and they shan't take you away from me. If they even try I will strike them down. My family will stand behind us, prince and princess both, and fight to keep you in this land."  
  
"Do you think me a fool a hundred fold for keeping this? For waiting?"  
  
"I think you must be hurt terribly by this, and it would not be the first dreadful thing that you've kept from me.....you still have not told me how my mother died or what happened while you were with her. And I will not force you to tell me if the memories plague you so. I wish you had told me so that we could have faced this day together from the start of it, not be frazzled and frightened now and standing to face an unknown enemy. But that cannot be changed and I will have to my wife tonight! They would have to kill me to stop me."  
  
She pulled away from him and stared him dead in the eye, "Do not underestimate my parents....if only death will stop you they shall gladly abide and step over your corpse."  
  
Suddenly a knock came to the door and Legolas hesitantly crossed to it, "Ya naa ta?" {Who is it?}  
  
"My prince, I am to inform you that dinner is beginning now due to the customs of the visiting monarchs."  
  
"Diolla lle. We shall come down promptly." {Thank you.}   
  
"We, my lord?"  
  
"Tell my father to expect both of us."  
  
"Yes, my prince."  
  
Legolas crossed back over to Lithil and cupped her cheek, "I'll not leave your side this day. Let us show them that you are mine and I mean to keep you. Let us finally show them all."  
  
Lithil nodded numbly, all her secrecy gone to waste and even now it haunted her, handicapped her, "After all these years they shall finally know."  
  
She got to her legs shakily and accepted the hand that Legolas offered her. They walked toward the dining room as if approaching a battle, both determined not to lose.   
  
A/N- short I know but I was feeling it so I wrote it and I figured the daughter of Telcontar fans couldn't berate me for updating this one first because Daughter had 3 updates in the space of a few weeks.   
  
Review please! 


	8. Face to Face

A/N- Its been far too long, Daughter of Telcontar fans I hope you've all come back for more, this story is going to truly evolve and become complex and long just like its predecessor. That is if the lazy author remembers to update….feel free to berate me for waiting so long.

Chapter 7- Face to Face

Lithil's heart was pounding in her head, she felt as if she were going to faint. Clutching tightly to Legolas' arm she put one foot in front of the other and kept breathing. She had no idea how she was going to face her parents again.

"Calm, meleth, you must stay calm."_love_ His voice was deep and soothing, she couldn't help but obey.

Still, it felt as though the trek to the dining hall was over before it began. Suddenly they were outside the oak and gold detailed doors that would reveal a long table, long enough to sit half the castle's occupants. How many times had she cleaned that table, how many thousands of times?

She closed her eyes and breathed heavily, both her arms clutching Legolas' to the point where he had to turn to her and wake her from her reverie so that he could open the door. It seemed as though she opened her eyes and he opened the door in the same fatal second and –

Her heart pounded so loudly she was sure they could hear it.

Thranduil smiled grandly as Legolas entered with the elf from the portrait hanging off his arm, "Ah, friends from afar this is my youngest son, Prince Legolas. Legolas, these are the visiting dignitaries. King Morguth and Queen Helaiwen from the Grey Havens."

The golden prince inclined his head sharply, "Mae govannen." He hissed.

"Atara…" _Mommy_ She whimpered, barely perceptively even to elvish ears, "Ada…" _daddy_

They could see her shaking, they could see her eyes wide with fear, she knew they could, they could see her pallor, the could sense that her feet itched to run, to run so far, so fast, that they would never bother her again.

Legolas' face was cold as he gazed at the elves before him, his eyes judgmental. They were both tall and handsome figures, Lithil favored her mother's face but did not possess the strawberry hue to her hair nor the grey tint to her eyes; her coloration favored the formidable elf-king. It disturbed him that he could see Lithil's face so clearly in her mother's for the woman held none of Lithil's cheer, none of her warmth…this is what his lover would look like if her heart was torn from her, her compassion stolen from her soul.

He could scarcely meet his own father's gaze, let alone bring himself to pretend he had never met Lithil before. If this was the way his father found out of his son's affair, so be it, the prince would not take his arm from Lithil when she needed to lean upon it most.

Barely inclining his head in a bow to the foreign dignitaries he sat down, placing Lithil next to him, his hand remaining over her's. If King Thranduil saw this, he pretended not to very well.

Lithil was pale and sick looking, she looked like a thunder-frightened mare about to die of shock or run in fear; Legolas thought that anyone with eyes could see how disturbed she was. If they saw her state, her parents' did not care to let it be an excuse for poor manners.

"Is that how you greet your long lost parents?" Her mother's eyebrow arched in disapproval.

Lithil looked at her lap, "N'uma… mae govannen, atar, adar…" _No….well met mother, father_.

Her father cleared his throat roughly causing Lithil to sit up straight and lift her head so that her eyes could seek no target except her parents.

King Thranduil's previously hidden shock now exposed itself, "Have I heard correctly, my lord? This is your…daughter?"

King Morguth looked at the Silvan elf as though he'd grown a second head, "You mean… even you were not party to her little stunt?" He focused his eyes on Lithil, "Have you no pride in your blood, pen morna loth?" _Little Dark flower_

Legolas' grip on Lithil's hand tightened as she looked to the elf king she had lied to for so long, "Forgive me, my lord. I….I did not know I was permitted to think of myself as a princess any longer."

Thranduil's curiosity was peaked, he called for more wine as he fixed his eyes on Lithil, more or less forgetting his son sitting next to her, "You…you have served as a maid in my house for, how long?"

"Two hundred and thirty six years nearly to the day." Queen Helaiwen spoke as she took a sip from her wine glass then turned to her host, "A delightful choice, my lord."

"Diolla lle." _Thank you_ Thranduil's response came as if he knew not what else to say, and in truth he had no idea. The best he could manage was a tight lipped, "And what is your name?"

"Lith-"

"Simbelmyne." Her father's rough tone cut off Lithil's response, "Or have you forgotten? You wear a token on your breast, I see. Just how did you come by that, we surely did not give it to you."

Morguth's eyes flitted to Legolas and how the elf hung about his daughter. Even estranged fathers were still fathers.

"The Lady Galadriel gave it to me…she wanted me to remember you. She wanted me to reconcile."

"The Lady of the Light would not bother with a chit like you." Her mother's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"But she did, she gave me these precious things that I wear. I may have even taken her words to heart had not such dark times come after them…"

"Dark times?"

Lithil met Thranduil's eyes and then Legolas', she squeezed her lover's hand apologetically before saying, "I was in attendance to the Queen when she…died."

No matter how her parents had treated her, they were still elves, still bound, and still very much in the same love they had been in for many thousands of years. The implication that Thranduil had lost his wife caused even their hearts to soften and there was a moment of silence and five bowed heads for the memory of the lost Queen.

"Simbelmyne? Our records hold no mention of such a name." Thranduil's new train of thought meant to lead everyone far away from his wife, "I would remember such a name."

"That is because it is not her true name." Legolas cut in before anyone else could, "Her real name is Lithil."

"Legolas…how is it you know this?"

Sensing that Thranduil's wrath would be incurred were they to keep too many secrets from too much longer, Legolas sighed, "Father, I beg of you to be understanding."

"Of?" Thranduil's eyebrows arched in a mixture of suspense and anger.

"Of secrets that have been long kept."

"I'll drink to that." Lithil managed a ghost of her normalcy buoyancy as she took a deep drink from her wine glass.

She knew what Legolas was going to do and she knew that all the webs she had carefully constructed had trapped her in this hell, tortured now by her parents, and most likely soon to be loathed by the Elf King. She had but one ally in this room and he was about to be drawn into the depths with her, her heart felt heavy now for all those years of secrecy, for all those years of lying.

"Father, Lithil was a playmate of mine throughout our younger years. Mother…" The thought of his mother nearly choked him up but Legolas continued smoothly, "Mother thought it healthy for me to have a friend my own age, and Lithil is very close to it. I knew her as nothing more then a maid and I fell in love with her…probably from the beginning. It was not until after that….incident," The Queen's death was always referred to as an incident, an accident, some other vague term to keep the grief from spilling over onto the syllables, "she nearly died she was so hysterical and grief-stricken. That was when I was sure of my love, when I realized a world without her would not be a world worth living in."

He paused and looked at his lover, affording himself a small smile, "We were fifty when we finally got around to admitting it to each other. We have been lovers ever since."

Thranduil's face was muddled as though he was holding in so much rage it was hurting his face complexion and Lithil motioned worried to Legolas seeming to say _Do something before he bursts._

"I know you would've liked to hear this at a….better time… but because of her past, because of _them_," Legolas shot a venomous look to the royals across the table from him, "She was too afraid to bind to me, to make public our affections and asked me to keep it a secret. Who am I to refuse?"

"Who….are……you…..?" Thranduil's breathing was a bit ragged, "You're the Prince of Mirkwood! Did you never think it prudent to let someone know that your in love!"

"I apologize, Majesty, the fault is entirely mine." Lithil spoke up, her soft voice and frightened features causing even the enraged elf-king to reign himself, if only a little.

"_You_," Thranduil said pointedly, "would do very well indeed to explain to me what in Mandos' Golden Halls is going on. You! Not them, not him, you……now."

Making sure that she never met her parents' eyes she told the elf king her tale as objectively as she could. He seemed moved until she reached the end and her father cleared his throat.

"Now that you have heard her, perhaps you would hear us as well?" And without waiting for permission proceeded to tell a long drawn out tale of a snobby, spoiled child who would not obey her parents and who caused them the ultimate shame and embarrassment. The tale concluded with the repentant parents searching out for their child after an elf-princess from Mirkwood had a portrait of her.

Lithil's eyes brimmed with tears of the deepest fear and loathing and as her father coolly finished his tale she sprung up from her seat, "You evil creature, you are not here for love of me! Tell me why you've come!"

Slapping her fist on the table for effect Lithil stared down her parents, face to face, for the first time that night.

She never quite knew what answer she had expected, but it was not the answer she received.

A cruel smile slid across her father's face, "We are here to give you a second chance…_Simbelmyne_."

Her heart sank to the floor… what sort of chance was this?

A/N- ok…..so …..its been absolutely forever since I updated, feel free to bitch about it. But this fic is the next big one, it's the next DoT. Though right now I admit it is a bit rushed, the details don't flow. That's because the juicy part of the story should take your focus not this part, though I'll probably get annoyed with it and come back and fix it. Questions? Rotten vegetables?

I'd say about 5 chapters the third ID will show up, don't quote me on that but that's my guess…..

Anyone out there bored enough to try to find the third ID in the chapter previously marked? I'll give you a hint, it's a word and its capitalized.

Major cookies to anyone who guesses correctly -

_Review! Review!_ I promise to try to update once a month (I'd promise a week but those who've read me for a while….well….we both know that's a lie….hey im slow but im honest!)


	9. Second Chances

A/N- I wrote this a couple days after I posted the lat chapter….well I started it…..that's an improvement! cough in the background that sounds oddly like "You uploaded a Timeline fic" Umm….I have NOT abandoned this fic at all.

Please don't abandon it just because I'm a terrible updater! Btw- the chapters are very messed up…I'm gonna try to fix that. Pronto.

Elvish translations are in italics cause the other things don't show up.

Chapter 8- Second Chances

Lithil took a deep breath and in one swallow had banished all her fear to the deepest recesses of her mind, now all that was left was dread. Legolas regarded her parents with suspicion, he didn't trust them as far as he could throw them. Thranduil merely watched the scene from a distance, taking comfort with his wine and trying to organize his thoughts.

"I offer you the chance to redeem yourself," Lithil's father chose his words carefully, "What say you?"

Cocking her head to one side, Legolas could see her struggle. They had treated her abhorrently, she would be within every right to simply refuse them, banish all thoughts of them forever, never worry of them again. But she was also young, young now and young when she had left and the void their absence had left could not have been easy to bear, especially if she blamed herself for their distance.

He squeezed her hand to remind her of his presence and she smiled gratefully at him, saying quietly, "I don't deserve you."

In response he merely kissed her hand and watched as she straightened her back and faced her parents.

"Nothing you could offer me can undo what you have done…maybe we have all been fools but I can see now that I have been running for years, fearful for years, hoping to never cross your path again. I was so ashamed and now that I face you I wonder for what? For what am I ashamed? You would've sent a child, _your only daughter_, to be raped by a King of Men simply because he was a King of Men. And now the ling of Kings has long since broken, their line has long since forgotten all that happened two hundred years ago. What care have I if you nurse injured prides? You can nurse them well enough far away from me….so I answer you shortly, father, no. I will not listen to you."

Both of their expressions darkened and Morguth stood up so quickly that he overturned his chair, "You dare to say that to me! You dare!"

"She dares!" Legolas growled, "I think her words were plain and just, now if you mean to cause further harm leave these lands all the more quickly!"

"Legolas," Thranduil spoke in a low warning-tone, "You have not the authority to send them forth, that yet rests in me. Mind yourself."

"I may protect the woman I love from those that harm her, and if these two become a threat, royal or no, I shall treat them as a threat."

"Duly noted, Pen-taren. That said I will only persist in saying this," Morguth's tone was less angry, more condescending, "Asking for her to listen is a mere formality. She _will _listen." _Little Prince_

"And why should I?" Lithil spoke up.

Queen Helaiwen, still seated and dramatically more poised then her husband, merely passed a scroll across the table to Lithil, "That is why."

Legolas tried to read over Lithil's shoulder but she'd not let him. As she took in the words, she paled and her bottom lip shook, beyond speech she mutely handed the scroll to her lover.

_A Binding Custodial Contract_, _ to take place between the kingdoms of Gondor and the Gray Havens, is herein detailed for all eyes. The King of the Elvish province of the Grey Havens, King Morguth, and the Steward, reigning in place of the King of Gondor, Lord Nemedor, have here upon agreed to the following terms: That Lithil the Death Flower of the Havens, only daughter of Morguth, shall herein be a ward of the Gondorian throne. She is exchanged for trade routes, military assistance and allegiance and usage of the Gray Haven navy/ formal naval training of Gondorian troops that they might better fight the Great Eye. _

_This pact, here signed, binds in loyalty the Grey Havens and Gondor, thus any and all who prevent in the forthcoming of the goods mentioned above shall face the penalty of for the crime treason. _

Below were the signatures of both the King and Queen of the Havens and some illegible scrawl they were led to believe was the Steward's signature. Even if it were not his, there were several by his advisors. Legolas lost all breath in his body, he could not remember passing the scroll to his father but when next he looked Thranduil's jaw dropped as he read the contents of it.

"As you can well see, any attempt to thwart the treaty we have made with Gondor will result in regions charging you are traitor and serving a swift judgment on the head of the traitor. The unspoken agreement was that the penalty shall be no less then death." A sickly, dark grin came to the elf-king's face, "So, _daughter_, if you have any care for this prince's life, if his pretty words hold any truth, drag him no deeper into treachery. Indeed, it seems your years of refusal to bind to him have proven his saving grace. But mark my words, not even other royals may break a royal treaty. Prince or no he will die a traitor's shameful death should he try to keep you from fulfilling this pact."

Legolas tried to argue but found he had no voice to do so with, Lithil could only choke out, "Blackmail!"

Thranduil, upon reading the paper, slid it back to its owners. His face turned into the stone that he had carved his palace from and as Legolas watched him with a new respect for the King that Thranduil was.

"What, may I ask, does being the ward of the Steward entail?"

"She will belong to him, finally she is out of my house and under my nose. It is the unruly children you must wash your hands of even as you watch them, surely you as a parent must understand that?" Helaiwen tried to make it sound enticing but Thranduil eyed her as if her attempts to fool him were insulting.

The two kings met eyes in a battle of wills.

"You would submit your daughter to the whims of the Steward of Gondor?"

"You make it sound as though I were throwing her to the wolves."

"Am I? For how long will she be warded to the Stewards?"

Morguth's smile broadened, "Read the last line, its nearly hidden under the signatures."

Thranduil snatched back the scroll and looked for the part, upon finding it he cringed, "All hereby under the restraints of this Treaty must carry it until all parties are deceased or until one of the ruling bodies relieves the other of their duty."

"Li—life? For life I must remain there?" Lithil nearly swooned.

"Life!" Legolas exclaimed.

Thranduil threw the scroll at Morguth, "That goes beyond the binds of elvish law. That is treachery of a kind that I shall not play along with! Be gone from my kingdom! By tomorrow's sunrise I want to see no sign of you within these walls."

The two royals stood and faced Thranduil with a fire equal to his own, "And our daughter will be coming with us."

"She will remain here if that is her wish."

"My lord, mayhap you misunderstand. We can declare war on kingdoms that try to interfere with our treaty."

"Such Treaties between Men and Elves is not right! This is a betrayal of the sanctity of love, of binding, to the elves. You would trap your daughter with Men she has no desire to be with until the end of time! Trap her away from my son, who claims to love her! If they wish to bind, if they wish to stay here as a married couple and have a dozen children so I will permit them to do so! But to throw your child into….into _slavery_. Never will I abide by that, never will I be a conspirator nor a bystander to such cruelty. Leave my house."

Legolas knew, at that moment, a great swell of love for his father such as he had never felt. The two had been at odds for so long it seemed unusual to stand as allies now, but stand they did. Lithil stood beside Legolas, their hands clenched together as if life itself was being held between those woven fingers.

Her parents bowed their heads ever so slightly before making their way to the door. By this time the sun had just begun to set over Greenwood. Before disappearing from sight, Helaiwen turned and met her daughter's eyes.

"If you intend to bind yourself to him, you would do well to ask King Thranduil to describe to you the agony of being separated from your bond for all time. For remember what you are, you are Simbelmyne that grows from the plains of Rohan to the fields of Gondor. This treaty is set in a stone foundation that no mountain could move, you _will_ find yourself a ward of the Steward…and if you are foolish enough to involve him, your pretty Prince will die. And you shall live for all eternity knowing you caused his death."

She left with that, and Lithil flung her arms around Legolas' neck, "I would die as well! Melethnin, I could not bear life without you!" _my love_

Grasping her tightly against him Legolas stroked her hair, trying to calm her, "You will not have to, dearest, you will not leave."

She pulled back from him, her big blue eyes shining with unshed tears, "They failed in their first plot to use me to benefit a Gondorian alliance…I….I feel a terrible dread, like winter's chill on the back of my neck, that they shall be given _their_ second chance!"

A/NOooo…..cliffy O.O so……how's everyone liking it? I apologize again that these chapters are brief and quick, but the nature of the story is to hurry itself along until we get to the real juicy point, the story goes straight through to the end of the Return of the King and poor Aragorn isn't even in diapers yet! I mean, jeez, Arathorn's not in diapers yet! Gandalf's probably not in diaper's yet! (ok that's an exaggeration but u get the point, the plotline must cover an insane amount of time and so some parts must temporarily suffer….later editing might improve this)

Review! Review! Ive been a good author and updated quickly!


	10. Protection

A/N- major props to Justine, my fantastic beta!

And yes….its been stupidly long since I've updated and you may feel free to berate me for such a dreadful thing….but Lithil is not lost! Don't worry….those of you clinging on from Daughter of Telcontar should be well acquainted with my….lapses in updating. Sorry!

Chapter 9- Protection

Lithil staggered back to her rooms as if she had just come from a fight: her breathing was ragged, her movements were stiff and forced and for whatever reason she was limping. The tear-drop scar burned as if it was just recently acquired, every time she drew her hand away from it she expected to see blood on her palm.

She collapsed on her bed, barely managing to exhale; any kind of exclamation was beyond her.

_They were here! Great Valar, they had come!_

The thought itself still astounded her; over two hundred years of living a double life, of hiding Simbelmyne away in a trunk where she could be free to ignore her and now the wretch breathed again.

Standing carefully, Lithil stared at her mirror wondering who this being reflected in the glass was. This girl in an elegant gown, wearing a crown and a priceless piece of jewelry was _not_ her. This was not who she had made herself, this was who she had run from being. With a second wind, with renewed vigor, she literally tore the expensive dress into rags. Taking the circlet from her head she threw it across the room, hearing it hit something that immediately crashed to the floor, what it was, she did not care. As for the necklace? She couldn't bring herself to break it. It was exquisite in so many ways, even if those ways were tainted by the flower's connotation. She could think of better ways to use that flower, she was sure of it. At the moment however, she could think of nothing better then leaving it resting on her breastbone.

Turning she plunged herself into the wooden drawers that held the attire she normally wore for her role as a servant of the house. She threw the material on as though wearing it could erase the events of the day, making her just another servant once again.

She was smoothing out some creases that blemished the fabric when something reflected in the mirror caught the corner of her eye. It may have been a trick of the light for it was surely not a trick of the eye itself, but Lithil could have sworn that she saw her garb alter. It seemed rougher, older and dirtier; she wondered if her mind was toying with her vision. The clothing she glimpsed in the mirror appeared to be the same garments she had seen long ago, so long she scarcely remembered…

Flashback

Running, running frantically from the bedroom, she could only bump into walls and people and hope to eventually find a door. It was exasperating being lost in a maze of humans who could not decipher the pleas that poured from her mouth in a foreign tongue. Even though the tears obscured her sight, she kept going, careful of nothing spare the assurance that she did not go backwards, backwards was not something she would ever care to do.

It repulsed her, the man's hands, his touch, his kisses. He seemed to be more like a monster then a man with his rough mane of black hair and all that fur about his face. What normal creature looked like that? It was certainly a new spectacle for the elvish child to see a man at all! Much less one that was so dramatically different from her own people! How was she expected to know that it was perfectly normal for humans to have beards? But never mind the beards and how they scratched her skin, it was the man's hands she sought to escape.

She supposed that binding was a pleasurable experience, after all, the older girls gossiped and giggled about it as if it were, but now she was not so sure. She was so terrified, all she wanted was to bury her face into her mother's skirts or curl up into a ball somewhere and be safe; safe from hands groping at a body barely formed, safe from chapped lips and rough beards that still held the essence of previously consumed ale. Safe from calloused, tough-skinned hands searching, moving up her calf, past her thigh, they seemed to be always searching. Uncaring as she fidgeted, as she protested or even as she screamed. It was not until she beat his hand away and ran, that he noticed her displeasure at all.

And so she kept running, running faster and hopefully farther.

The corridor that served as her escape route suddenly came to a stop, only one door was left and she quickly went through it, not thinking about the possibility that there might be something behind it she would not care to see.

Luckily, there was nothing there that would harm her. Nay, the people there were kinder then any others that had ignored her as she careened through the halls. They wore rough-spun garments that were well worn in and sporting many a repair and a few fresh tears. But through the indiscernible cloth there was a distinct color pattern. These were the servants of the Gondorian Lord.

The servants thought her a human child but quickly found she was nothing of the sort. One old matron thought it best the girl receive some air lest she faint; had it not been for that stroke of luck Lithil might still be racing through the corridors of Gondor escaping those horrid hands.

End Flashback

_It was the uniforms_, she realized _the uniforms of Gondor. _

A blue bodice and skirt with white undergarments all of which were sewn together with bits of this and that. Lithil tried to picture herself wearing such a uniform if she were a man's slave but could not keep the image for very long. True, she is a servant now, and has been for many years, but despite her place in the prince's bed, she had never acted like less of a servant, indeed she would get angry at her lover when he suggested she take his crown and never need worry about polishing his father's tables again. She didn't mind being a maid of the royal house, for she liked knowing that when she rose in the morn she was expected, just as countless others were, to be up and about and at her assigned post. There were no favorites amongst the servants and she was expected to work as hard as the rest; she liked the anonymity that it afforded her.

But the elves were far different from men, dear Valar she had learned that long ago.

She looked down at the dress she wore; there were no requirements as to what she was to wear, save that it could not be shabby and it was preferred you wear the colors of Greenwood even if not those of the Royal House. Garments could be tailor made or home-spun and those cleaning maids that spent their earnings on pretty dresses were treated no differently then those who saved their wages for more important things.

There was one critical difference between being a servant here and a servant that treaty condemned her to be. Here she could leave whenever she pleased and no one would lift a finger to stop her. There? There she was a slave. A slave until her death, which, unless unforeseeable evils occurred, would never happen.

Before she could think into it farther a knock came to her door and Legolas slipped inside. A small, tired smile lit her face when she saw him.

"Ah, there is the maid I love so well! She was hiding from me for a time." He said as he took in her appearance.

"She was not hiding, My Prince, merely absent. She was playing a part she has long since abandoned rehearsing for."

He crossed the room giving her a warm kiss before taking her hands, "No more playing with words, beloved. This is something we must discuss."

Sitting down she rolled back her shoulders, trying to relax away the tension that had built up throughout the day, "Indeed we must. But I wish we didn't have to."

"As do I, but such is not the case." Placing both his hands comfortingly on hers he looked her squarely in the face, flatly stating, "I refuse to let you go."

Lithil leaned so that their foreheads touched, "At least we agree, melethnin." _My love_

_Author's Note: I've been staring at this entry for literally 6 or 7 months trying to figure out what comes after it… and I still don't know. I can't find words. So I'll post this and hope it comes to me._

_Aren't they cute together? Awwww, Leggy and Lithy!_


	11. Two Little Words

A/N- Yeah…I realize I'm slow! But if your HP fans I have a great Sirius/OC humor fic that's been really popular. Check it out, there's also a bunch of Lupin/Tonks one-shots.

And here's the story you've all been waiting for…well…part of it.

Let the juiciness of the tale begin!

Chapter 10- Two Little Words

It was two little words...just two tiny words. They seemed the most harmless things in the world. Who would have known that they carried the weight of two nations and two hearts? Who would have guessed that those words were the catalyst of more then two thousand years of wondering, if indeed those two little words were the right words to choose.  
It is not always in the pre-dawn of battle that we see the flaws in our plan. Sometimes it is not even as we fight, it is when our blades growing bloodier, our arms grow wearier, our hearts pound and our lungs starve for air, that we see the cracks in the ground beneath our feet.  
It is in the aftermath that we can truly judge.  
Perhaps events might have been different for them, as events all around the world and throughout time would have been different, if we could have hindsight as foresight to our greatest obstacles.   
Perhaps a different set of words would've been spoken.  
Alas, 'perhaps' is a beast often deemed of but seldom seen… that is the way of things.  
Size is not a guarantee of power; they had known this all their lives. Power, the likes of which the world has never known, can be vested in a single band of gold, while something as vast as a country may not have enough power to raise a finger in their own defense. Their whole race placed the weight of immortality on something invisible but unbreakable: the will of a being.  
They were accustomed to realizing that words carried great influence, that actions once performed could never be undone, that even small measures could have far-reaching effects.  
He had asked her one simple question, and her answer decided both of their fates.  
"Will you bind with me, Lithil?"  
For centuries now it had been one swift answer. One word. No. N'uma. She would not do it, she would not risk it.  
And now, at the end of the game, she had only two words to ride her hopes on; two words held her dreams, her fate.  
Binding your soul to another for the rest of time was not an action or concept to be taken lightly. She had known this her whole life, had respected the power of binding and lived separated from him.   
Now she yearned to never be alone again. It made her feel vulnerable; it frightened her now, this sacrificing solitude. She was tired of shivering alone in the dark.  
Two little words…  
What would they say if they knew?  
Two tiny…  
What would they do if they knew?  
…little…  
Who cares what they know?  
…words…   
"I will."  
They seemed so harmless, those two little words.

_Author's Note: Justine my fabulous beta! Everyone applaud Justine! She makes the pile of run-ons I write into chapters!_

_Writings an amazing thing, months without a single thought and then you sit down and pound out a chapter._

_Albeit a short chapter but a chapter._

_I must note that we're getting into the real meat of the story…so hold onto something. It's gonna be a bumpy ride. _

_REVIEW!_


	12. The Loss

A/N- so its been over a year….DoT fans will remember such lapses. Alas…

Chapter 11 – The Loss

Legolas and Lithil fell onto the bed, half undressed, as they smiled and laughed and groped at each other like this was the first time they'd ever made love. It was beyond him to say what had happened, h had no words for the overwhelming peace that accompanied the binding. At one point, as your body molded with your partner's, your soul bent and molded too. For something so great, for something that could hurt so deeply, it gave Legolas a peace unlike any he had known. A calm.

He lay there, Lithil in his arms, happy drowning in the calm. When had they last been able to be so free? So open? When had he ever been able to hold her past sunrise and not care who saw? Not care who knew?

When had he not had to wonder when she would finally be irrevocably his?

The calm made him dull when he should have been sharp…he did not see the handle of the door, and he lost the one second of preparation that would decide his fate.

She could only sigh and smile, contented at last and silently berating herself for waiting so long. How could she had ever thought that this peace was evil? Was dangerous? She could have laid in that afterglow forever…she would have. She wanted too….

But the door handle turned, so small a movement neither Lithil nor Legolas noticed it. It was so small, so fast…they were overcome.

Before they knew it Legolas' chambers were flooded with guards bearing the Gray Haven symbol. He fought them valiantly, he fought them well….but there were simply too many and he was overcome. They forced him to his knees and held a blade to his throat.

"Do it, if you've the courage, do it." He hissed at the traitorous elves, "You are no decent kind of being if you take her to them, what care you if you've my blood on your hands?"

They said nothing, but they gagged Lithil and bound her hands. As they took her she struggled and cried and tried to throw them off of her…tears streamed down her face and he could feel her heart racing in her chest, racing in time with his.

"LITHIL!!!!!" He cried as they handled her roughly, not even allowing her clothing but taking her away clad in one of his sheets, "I WILL COME FOR YOU!! I WILL SAVE YOU!!"

She finally fought off the gag and screamed just his name, that is all he saw or heard before the prince was bound tightly, and knocked unconscious.

When he woke he did not even set his vision into focus, all he could feel was the pain.

She was gone. Far from him, she was so afraid and angry…she must have been crying because he felt the tears in his own eyes. Inside her was a fiery sorrow, all consuming…

"Where is she? How far…?" He said as he finally focused. His sister was tending to his head as his brothers paced the room. Beyond the door his father was screaming, enraged. The doors burst open as Legolas spoke, rending holes in the walls, and his father ran to his bedside, taking his youngest son into his arms.

"You've woken….I was so afraid you would not wake…." There was something dead in his tone, Thranduil knew the pain that his son had only begun to experience, and he knew how hard it was to wake from.

"Where is she father? Where have they taken her?"

"Then it is as I feared…you have bound to her." It was not a question.

Tears came to Legolas' eyes as the pain in his chest became a burn so potent he feared his clothes would sear, "Father, WHERE IS SHE?"

There was nothing but pity and rage inside Thranduil's clear eyes as he said, "They are gone for Gondor…and our men have already been dispatched. They go to Gondor so the Stewart may release her on your behalf…for the sake of your life."

"You go to argue with the Stewart?" Legolas sat up, and willed the pain away, "Father, arm me and give me a troop of men! I shall reclaim her before tomorrow night and bring her back here where she belongs."

He was already standing when Thranduil pushed him back down on the bed, "I wish it were so simple, son…I wish."

He turned away, he would not cry in front of his children but the pain of his own broken bind was striking him in pity for the strike that Legolas was bearing. Salethine sat beside her brother and stroked his cheek as she said, "Legolas, they will bring war upon us from two kingdoms if we take her like a thief in the night…and Greenwood would not survive that kind of assault. We would all die from your folly if you ride out to reclaim your wife, every single elf in Greenwood would suddenly be fighting not only the approaching dark of Mordor in our woods…but both the Havens and Gondor….

"We are strongly made as elves…but even we can break under too great a strain."

"No…NO-"

"I know this hurts Legolas…but please…understand. We are not commoners, we are royalty. Your family would gladly die to stand with you against such dishonor…but we cannot ask a nation to. Not when they cannot endure it."

Legolas could not bear the pain that her words brought, the realization that he was not going to be rejoined with Lithil as quickly as he thought. He could not bring himself to speak, nor eat, nor rest as long as Thranduil's missionaries were away. His sister stayed with him and force fed him when the first week passed…and the second.

No news came.

The incredible agony of the broken bond became greater and greater, until Legolas walked in dreams for most of the day. Once, as he was rising from one, he heard his sister sobbing.

"Father, you _must do something_. He is fading, he will die if some small bit of hope is not given to him! Please! I know not what to do!"

"He is not fading, dear one…he is not dying. Not unless she is."

"What if she is? Alone and afraid in Gondor?" Legolas spoke for the first time in weeks and Salethine, looking so happy, was dismissed from the room by her father. Thranduil sat beside Legolas and stroked his brow.

"Would Lithil ever strike you with a blade?"

"No!" Legolas spat out the answer, confused.

"Then she is not dying. In dying, she would kill you and she would never consciously do that. If she was forced to it, you would know…you would feel every second of her pain as though you suffered it yourself and yet it will be more painful because you know it is _her pain_. What you feel now, this great pain…be grateful of it. When it becomes a void that swallows every joy you have, she will be dead. You will know that unfailingly…"

Legolas heard the stain of familiarity in his father's voice…this was the loss Thranduil had lived with for so long. It was little wonder he was a distracted parent because of it.

Rising, Thranduil shook his head ominously, "They are counting on the fact that she does not want to kill you…so that she will stay in Gondor until she is released, or killed. She will not end her own life, not if it means killing you."

"She is probably waiting for me to save her! I promised I would-"

"She would not kill you that way either, by letting you pit yourself against an army that would kill you as a traitor."

"How could you know this?! YOU DON'T KNOW HER!" Legolas howled in frustration and pain, how could pain become so great?

"I know of the report that came a mere hour ago, from my most trusted political advisors. With words from her own lips…with testimony…with-"

The color drained from Legolas' face. He felt it inside him, like something that had teetered on the edge of a cliff had fallen over it. He'd lost.

What had he lost?

Then it dawned on him, "Without hope. They came without a way of bringing her back….she's gone."

"Worse then that, son." Thranduil handed him a small, sealed parchment with Legolas' name scrawled across the front in harsh letters made by man.

Inside was another treaty, signed by the Grey Haven monarchs and the Stewart.

Forbidding Legolas from setting foot within the realms that held Lithil.

Under penalty of death.

The parchment fell from Legolas' hands to the ground.

"They are protecting their investment, harsh as it sounds. She is of little use to them unless you are in danger and her cooperation saves you. This takes away even the dream of forcefully taking her…you should not have bound to her, Legolas-" Thranduil could not say the words in a kind way but Legolas overturned a night stand and screamed into his father's face.

"I LOVE HER! And I would rather feel the pain of missing her then the numbness of her absence, then the loneliness of her absence….and mark my words, father, I will find my way. I will take her back. And I will wait for however long it takes to have her back in my arms and belonging to me and only me."

Thranduil merely clapped his son's shoulder, what else could he do? He would rob Legolas of no more hope this day.

He would not force him to suffer any more loss.

A/N- so…I know it seems helpless but the fun part approaches! I promise….

And im a very different gal then the one who started writing this. I'm now in college and rather out of my obsessive LOTR phase, but I love this fic and really want to continue it. Im even WORSE at updating since my first boyfriend broke up with me shortly after the move to college and let's just say its been a very unfriendly freshman year….

But I'm back. I make no promises as to how often you'll see me as if I do LOTR I've since developed a healthy craving for eomer/lothiriel… but like I said, I like this story. And Im the only one who can write it the way it has to be written

FYI- its taken me a year to decide whether or not they were going to bond now or later. This might actually change plot-points as I've been leaning towards later for months…..

R/R if your still alive and reading this!


	13. The Millenia

A/N- slow and nearly steady

A/N- slow and nearly steady?? I'm trying…

Chapter 12- The Millenia

When she got to Gondor, she could barely sit up. It felt like someone was tearing her heart out more and more with every step she took. It had been days since she'd eaten. The humans around her looked to the elves to decide whether that was a problem, they assured the humans that they needed less nourishment than men did. But even Lithil's elvish stomach was knotted and growling. It was beyond hunger, but was not hungry. Perhaps this is what starvation felt like…no. Starvation would make her hungry. She was not allured by food. The smells of the fresh fruit as it lay on the ground, or sprung from the bush, did nothing to instill a desire in her. The only pining she felt was for the distance behind her and the desire to make it smaller.

"She looks half dead." One of the men snickered as the White City appeared on the horizon, "Some gift to the Steward."

The elves in her company eventually took her aside, pushing food at her. Weak and pale, Lithil pushed it away.

"I'm not hungry." She tried to walk away and collapsed. In the back of her being she felt Legolas…he was crying, in pain. His heart was breaking too. The knowledge that he suffered as she did increased her suffering that much more.

One of the elves caught her, looking deep into her eyes.

"Do you feel him?"

Lithil looked up, her eyes brimming over with tears, "How did you…"

"My mate was killed in battle. It took him a day to find his peace, and I could feel every second of his pain. It is not easy to deal with their pain and your own. I only survived for our son…I could not leave him alone."

Shaking her head slowly, Lithil looked up, "How do you make it stop?"

"You die…or you live."

Defiantly, Lithil shook her head, "Neither."

The she-elf slapped Lithil's cheek softly, "You stay like this…and you will kill yourself. And him."

She walked away from Lithil, giving up on what she considered to be a selfish lover. She did not see Lithil pick up an apple from a nearby tree and nibble on it.

They reached Minias Tirith that night. The Steward came to see her, some tall, dark, furry creature that looked like a boar. She looked at him, but saw nothing. Her stomach was rumbling with an apple and beginning to desire more.

"Pretty thing…what is your name?"

Lithil was staring past him, pretended not to hear him at all.

"Your name?" He picked up her chin.

Lithil cursed under her breath. Her new master could not hear the hushed tones nor did he understand elvish, which was fortunate for him as the words were far from polite.

"What did she say?" He looked to her elvish guards.

"Kai, my lord. Kai." (Nothing)

"Kai!...beautiful name. Does it mean something?"

Lithil laughed for the first time since the night she was taken from her marriage bed, "Nothing, my lord…it means nothing."

"Why is she laughing?" The Steward asked, perplexed.

"I know not, my lord. She told the truth…it means nothing. But her name…"

"Is Kai." Lithil hissed, and when she turned her face to the guards even the most heartless among them flinched at the demon that stared at them from the face of the elf they were condemning to a fate worse then death.

Truth be told, Lithil absorbed everything in her millennia in Gondor. She was aware of little, involved in nothing, and cared for no one. Her purpose ranged from ornament to historian, from advisor to maid… some times the men lusted after her. She refused their wishes under penalty of death, so she just removed her mind and was unaware of it happening. Elves could do this when they were tortured. It kept them alive, and she could not recall what had gone on, only that it had happened. She could've faded from such an intimate violation, but she could not subject Legolas, still connected to her subconscious, to such a fate.

So she merely survived, lived without living, for years upon endless years.

One day, she was being employed as tutor to the younger of the Steward's sons. She enjoyed the position as the younger son was a darling to her, but it was supposed to be a position of punishment. Kai had refused to marry the elder son, and was unwilling to fawn over the father, and so Denethor had angrily relegated her to Faramir's education. Faramir was a good boy, though not much of a boy anymore. He would make a fitting ruler…or a fitting poet. Though he was good at fighting, he was no soldier. Kai had tried to tell him this, but Faramir would not listen. More then anything he craved his father's affection, and he was convinced that meant he should be a noted soldier. Her words fell on deaf ears, but she stressed the rulers and poets in her education of him, leaving the battles on the sidelines.

"What of your people, Kai?"

"My people? How do you mean that?"

"Elves in general…your people in particular. You never speak of them."

She shook her head, "I am forbidden to return to them until I am released from duty here. I choose not to tease myself with fond memories."

Faramir was aware of the circumstances his tutor came to be in Gondor and stayed in the service of the Stewards. His father had once told him a story of a genie that could only be freed if his master used one of his wishes to release him, and none of the masters ever were so selfless. Faramir had no authority to free Kai, she was the ward of the Steward, not of his sons, and Faramir did not expect to ever sit in the seat of power. He sighed, thinking of her fate and pitying her.

"I would free you, Kai."

She smiled, one of her rare smiles, "I know that you would, little one, but I doubt you will ever get the chance."

"As do I…I could try speaking to Boromir…" Faramir knew such words would be in vain.

The contract binding Kai to the Stewards gave them domain over her body, but not over her blood. She was a wife in everything but title, and those few over the years that tried to make her a wife found her the picture of obstinacy at the request. She would not marry her captors. Boromir was the latest to try and win her hand. He wanted the elvish blood in his family line, he wanted the beauty and prowess of an elvish wife. Boromir wanted everything about Kai that he knew about…but he did not even know that her name was not really Kai.

Faramir had guessed that his tutor had taken a false name, just as she preserved her memories in her mind and was unwilling to sully them by sharing them in an environment she found so offensive, she was unwilling to soil whatever she cherished about her true self, her real identity. Faramir could appreciate that. But Boromir, he simply knew that Kai was always there, she was beautiful and elvish and magical…she was some rare gem he craved and as a spoiled firstborn Boromir grew used to getting what he wanted.

Not even Denethor could command this gem into Boromir's hand. But Boromir had more sway over his father then any other man had over Denethor. When the time came and it was up to Denethor to choose a son to represent Gondor in the Council at Rivendell, it was Boromir who suggested Kai's opinion should be heard.

"Kai? She is a servant." Denethor seemed dismissive.

"She is old, and wise, father. And Rivendell is the land of her people, perhaps she has some insight she could share?"

Kai was shocked at the invitation to speak, and when Faramir ordered a chair brought over for her to sit as she spoke touched her heart. A heart that she spoke from, insofar as she ever involved her heart in her life anymore.

"My Lord, if I must choose a son of yours to represent this country at Rivendell, I must honestly say young Faramir."

"Faramir?" Denethor seemed more dismissive.

"Why Faramir?" Boromir was genuinely curious at the reason behind the choice…a curiosity that lingered on the edge of offended and threatened to topple over.

"Faramir has a greater breadth of knowledge for different cultures and their histories, if the various races are represented it would be more beneficial to have such knowledge. Toes that are stepped upon in diplomacy may become bruised feet of a new enemy in battle." Kai paused, studying everyone's face. Denethor was hardly listening, Boromir was growing hurt at the slight to his schooling, and Faramir gave a smile that was half pride and half embarrassment.

"They want a representative of Men, not some boy who studied well. There is one man between my sons and it is Boromir, without a doubt. And it is he who shall go." Denethor tapped Kai's arm lightly, "But fear not, my pretty elf, perhaps he will need such knowledge with him. Therefore, I send you with him. Be his companion, keep him warm at night, and see to it that he has everything he may need to be a fit representation of our fair race."

Kai should have been upset, she should have been offended….but for the first time in a thousand years she would be permitted to leave Gondor….and for an Elvish realm!

She thought that life looked brighter that day.

The journey was not easy, but Kai relished it. She often felt frustrated that Boromir was human and required sleep during the night, frequent food and water breaks that Kai did not need, and generally his mortality slowed up the journey a great deal.

Rivendell…. Kai could scarce wait.

It only occurred to her as elvish relics began to show on the roadways that the elves may be offended by her. She had been forced many times to give into the demands of men, to bow to them. Some had ordered her ears pierced so they could lead her around like a slave on a leash, the piercings were kept later as no one thought ill of them. She wore human clothes, and was treated like a lesser by her human masters. The very idea would offend most elves, seeing it would probably not be the best setting for diplomacy.

Perhaps she should have thought of that before she left?

It didn't matter, it had been too long since she had last breathed in free air, she wasn't willing to give that up.

Maybe the elves would choose to protect her?

Maybe even…save her?

No no….she mustn't dare to hope for so much.

She wondered vaguely if Mirkwood would be represented…and whom Thranduil would send…

No, no…she mustn't dare to hope for so much.

It was too much.

A/N

Hey wow its been forever and a day since I updated…. It will likely continue but I do not promise fast pacing 

Review!


	14. The Slave Princess

Chapter 13- The Slave Princess

A/N if you see italics and there is a mixed crowd of species, the italics are elvish. I used to speak it and write it out but its been a few years so I've forgotten most of it.

Chapter 13- The Slave Princess

Rivendell was more beautiful to Kai than she remembered it being. It seemed to glow in the way elves glow but she had been in a barren stone city for so long she had forgotten what it was like. How at peace it was.

For the first time in a thousand years, she breathed easily, without the weight of Man on her breast. Here she would not be hounded, here she would not be abused. How could the elves bear to see her so mistreated? Bear to see her scars? Boromir was not as harsh a master as others, but he knew not the offenses he would cause in an elvish domain treating a princess twice crowned as a slave. The elves had never known slavery, they had only ever fought against it. They had fought for lesser creatures to maintain their rights. Betimes they succeeded and betimes they failed, but nature never promised anything but change.

But elves were slow to change.

She began to fear that the elves may hate her for allowing the treatment…she wondered how many knew of her plight. They might shun her, they might ridicule her as the humans did; only she knew it would hurt so much more coming from a kinsmen. Her hood was drawn low over her face, and she kept it so low.

Even as they entered the great hall at Rivendell. Kai was almost thankful that her face was obscured for she wept at the grace in the stones, the majesty of this palace. This elvish realm she was standing in for the first time in an endless millennia of torment.

She cried, she could not help it. Just a few errant tears.

Lord Elrond spoke to Boromir but noticed the figure at his side. The Great Lord knew this was no ordinary servant, but something in him hesitated to order the servant pull back their hood. Most of the diplomats had gathered in the main hall to watch the stragglers gather. The elvish domains were already represented; they awaited Gandalf the Grey and the Dwarf Lords now.

Boromir bowed low to Elrond and saw Kai's hood drawn.

"Kai, remove your hood in the presence of royalty."

The elves quirked their heads in unison, they did not understand why Boromir used "nothing" as a name. For a moment Kai hesitated and did not draw back her hood. That moment caused great embarrassment to the son of the Steward and he tore off her hood for her.

A great intake of shock filled the room, there was a momentary hush where Lithil wanted to cut off her ears rather than bear the silence of her people.

Then the cry came, "_Take your hands off of my wife!"_

Through the crowd parted as Legolas Greenleaf tried to run toward Kai. Boromir stood in his way and Legolas' eyes, lit with a thousand years of longing, were in a blaze of fury.

_"Get out of my way, son of Gondor." _He hissed.

"Prince Legolas! Would you so defile this house of diplomacy with your rashness?" Elrond's voice pierced every inch of the hall.

Trying desperately to look past Boromir at the shell of his wife, Legolas could only bow to the great king.

"What is the meaning of this?" Boromir turned to Kai, "What is wrong, Kai?"

Around the room elves twitched when he said the name, knowing he addressed the abused elf before them.

"My Lord," She replied, "I offend them."

"Not you, my love. Him." Legolas hissed.

Elrond was the only elf to disagree with the Mirkwood prince's words; the matter of diplomacy still rested on Elrond's shoulders to mold and sustain.

"My Lord Boromir, you seem confused. Perhaps Lithil would like to address the issue presently? My lady, you may, of course, decline."

"I should like to Lord Elrond… it is still strange to me to be amongst elves again. I am not recovered from that shock."

"Why is he calling you Lithil? Kai!" Boromir hissed at her, tugging her arm.

"_Don't touch her." _

"Legolas!" Elrond admonished, "If I must remind you of your manners again I shall dismiss you from these proceedings and Mirkwood may be represented by one of your kinsmen. I understand your feelings, but you must be a prince to your people now. You may be a husband when talks of diplomacy have been overturned for the night."

"My Lord is wise." Legolas bowed again, blushing his embarrassment at the chastisement.

Elrond turned to Boromir, "My sincerest apologies, Son of Gondor, that you have such a welcome. I assure you my house is typically more inviting. You bring with you the strangest servant you could bring. Elves keep servants, but not slaves, and the elf you have brought with you today is nothing short of a slave by our standards."

Boromir bristled, "She is the gem of my family. A companion to the Stewards for centuries."

"_Lies._ Lies." Whispers broke out in the crowd, there were many who remembered the great fury of the contract that had signed Lithil to Man as a slave. Many did not hide their distaste for the Steward's son's lack of knowledge behind the veil of the elvish tongue. Boromir felt trapped, cornered, and he wanted to fight back but did not know how. Lithil could see in his eyes that his humiliation was going to lead to Gondor leaving Rivendell…and she knew that could not happen.

"Silence all!" She suddenly spoke, "Boromir, my Lord, I fear you are not entirely correct. Many Stewards have taught their sons that I am a willing companion of your line and most sons accept it because they do not like the truth. I was part of a political contract, forced to servitude to your family. You know this."

Red in the face Boromir turned to her as if they alone were arguing, "You have never left! You are an elf and more capable than most soldiers in our army and you never left! You never fought us! You obey us like some tame dog and we are supposed to think you unwilling?!"

The offended silence of the room made the Gondorian look around him, he saw the blonde elf that had first harassed him look so angry his perfect complexion mottled.

"My name is Lithil. The elf you see there is Prince Legolas of Mirkwood," She motioned behind Boromir, he didn't need to turn around to know exactly whom she spoke of, "and many years ago we were married."

"Married? You never said you were married."

"It was under pain of Legolas' death that I leave my post of servitude to the Stewards. My family, royal elves of the Grey Havens, contracted me, their only daughter, as a punishment. They felt me useless to them, a daughter they had tried to marry to a Gondorian king as a child and ran from her marriage bed in fear. Elves do not believe in forced unions, it is not our way. My parents were not like most elves. They disowned me, until they needed something to trade to the Stewards. I was a pawn. And on my wedding night they stole me from my true husband and brought me to Gondor. There I have been ever since."

Elrond spoke before Boromir could respond, "Her appearance has also offended her kinsmen. A princess appears in servant's rags. An elf has pierced ears… it is the sign of ultimate degradation for an elf to have molested ears, for they are our most sensitive part. My Lord, we mean no offense to you but you have unknowingly brought great controversy with you when you brought Princess Lithil into an elvish house again."

Boromir tried to regain his composure, "Am I to be so alienated for the sins of my fathers? I may only lead the life I was given and those parts that were in place before my time it is not my duty to move. Kai has always been a servant to me, I know not how else to behold her. You may as well have told me my horse was a prince, I am so unfamiliar with how to approach this. I know not what else to say. I did not defile her ears, and her clothes are not my duty to choose… I knew not of the turmoil I caused in bringing her…" He looked darkly at Kai, "and she had breathed not a word of it until now."

"Can you blame her wanting to see an elvish kingdom again?" Legolas spoke, his voice not so harsh now, he sounded tired almost, "It has been a long time."

Boromir looked at the supposed prince next to him, the elf was thin and pale, he did not look old enough to be Kai's husband but Kai looked very unlike the rest of these elves.

"I suppose it is a reasonable desire…As I expect you will find my desire to retire to my rooms and spend some time with my private thoughts before we speak of Mordor?"

With that the Son of Denethor spun on his heel and walked toward the exit. Lithil lingered behind, staring at Legolas, drinking the sight of him in as though she would be carted away again and not see him for another thousand years or more. Before Boromir got to the door he stopped, "Kai! Come along."

She had no choice but to obey.

That first day was long in the house of Elrond.

A/N

So its short but its been sitting here waiting to be updated for about a year, so I guess its time to update. I recommend putting me on author alert because I am not a frequent updater.

How do you like the newest addition?


	15. The Fellowship

Chapter 14- The Fellowship

Boromir could not bring himself to look at Kai in his room, nor speak to her. He felt humiliated. She stood in the corner, set amongst the shadows, and waited until he spoke. When he left for the Council she stayed in the same spot. She was afraid of moving, afraid of angering Boromir…afraid that she would see Legolas in the halls and not be able to restrain herself. So she waited, truly the perfect servant.

She thought of how she looked in front of her countrymen. Like a rat, a rag…a shame. Many did not blame her, but the truth was that she was there. There were no small number of people who would have expected her to fade because the fact that she hadn't meant she had willingly submitted to such humiliations. Many of them had too much pride, and could not imagine agreeing to ever have their ears pierced or to be made to share their bodies with those they did not love. But she knew many of them were not bound. After the war, fewer elves seemed to bond. Even fewer had children. They would not know the pain of that infinite bond to another life as she was bound to Legolas…how could they ever expect her to harm him?

It seemed a long time before Boromir returned. When he came, he came with the lady of Rivendell, Arwen.

"There's to be a celebratory dinner tonight, Kai. Arwen has come to offer you more appropriate clothes."

"What is being celebrated?" Kai asked, but her eyes were stuck on Arwen, overjoyed at having elvish company.

"The Fellowship will leave on the morrow." Boromir ransacked his own bags to find a more appropriate tunic than what he was wearing, "The Fellowship of the Ring."

Kai knew Boromir was not really paying attention to her, and so as she looked at a few of the gowns Arwen offered her, she asked the Undomiel, "_What is the Fellowship? I do not understand."_

_"They have formed a company to take the Hobbit Frodo Baggins to Mount Doom and destroy the Ring."_

_"The Ring? Isulder's ring? Sauron's ring?"_

Arwen nodded, "_The Hobbit is strong for a small creature, he will do well."_

_"Who is in the Fellowship?"_

_"Frodo and three of his Hobbit friends. Gandalf the Grey. Gimli the Dwarf. Aragorn—"_

_"Isulder's heir??" _Kai's brows rose, "_This should be interesting…"_

_"Boromir has been chosen." _Arwen tried to appear nonchalant, "_And Prince Legolas."_

Kai sighed, "_He was always an adventurer….it is good the elves are represented. And the dwarves. It is fair."_

Arwen held up a blue dress and Lithil shook her head, looking longingly at the green underneath it. Green like Greenwood the Great.

"_The green will suit you," _Arwen smiled, "_You will look beautiful. Boromir has agreed to let me dress and adorn you tonight, I think he wants you to make a good impression amongst your people before you depart."_

_"Before he departs, you mean. I suppose I shall be sent back to Gondor instead of being allowed to stay here." _Kai sighed, "_I had hoped I would be allowed to stay."_

Arwen looked uncomfortable, "_You will be returning to Gondor, but not alone… a condition of Boromir's is that you accompany the Fellowship until they reach Gondor's borders, then you will part."_

Kai's mouth fell open, "_That will be a very long journey…this is not a swift-sounding party…."_

Tears caught in her throat, "_Oh, my lady, I know not whether to laugh or cry! I shall be near my husband and yet kept an arm's length away from him by my owner. I shall be forced to stare at him, everyday, mere inches from me and be unable to do anything! Not to kiss him or hold him…but he will be there. Really there. Not a mere dream or fantasy…"_

Arwen hugged Kai, rubbed her back and let the elf cry. Arwen cleared her throat and told Boromir that she was taking Kai to be bathed and dress, that she hoped he would be amenable to meeting them before dinner. He gave her a gracious reply but could barely grunt a farewell to Kai. It was then that Kai knew he was bringing her in the Fellowship to be punished.

"_There is much dissent about bringing you." _Arwen told her in the open hall, "_Many of the elves hissed at it, but even the dwarf agreed. Aragorn and Gandalf nearly screamed… they think you will distract Boromir and Legolas both, they think you are a detriment. You are not a soldier, you may prove a liability. How could Legolas protect both Frodo and you? But Boromir was insistent that if you must go back to Gondor, you should at least travel with them so you could relate the news most efficiently. He claimed at least your race is a credit to you, if you were in grave danger you could simply run straight out of it. My father agreed with him, but no one knows why."_

_"Do you?"_

_"My father has his reasons for things. I think this time he is trying to offer you happiness. Even tainted, dangerous happiness. He understands what a shattered bond feels like, he knows you would sooner evade danger than get stuck in it. If anything, he feels you may be too protective of Legolas and he will never be allowed to defend himself." _Arwen turned, "_I love Aragorn. He was fostered here, but it is a love my father makes him earn. He goes on this quest to face his birthright. This has already put him at odds with Boromir. But Aragorn well knows the ways of the elves… so does Gandalf. With Gandalf, Aragorn and Legolas watching to make sure Boromir does not disrespect you, he should behave. But if he does not, the fear is that the Fellowship will be divided over it…. I know that Aragorn will not abide seeing a woman raped by anyone, master or not. If Boromir tries to touch you, Aragorn will protect you. To his own end, if necessary."_

_"I am touched merely hearing of his valour. But I do not ask anyone to give their life for mine, especially not someone else's beloved….though Legolas would kill Boromir if he felt I was in danger."_

_"Boromir had done a dangerous thing bringing you…but my father allows it. So it must be wise in some way." _

Arwen and Kai seeped into a deep, hot bath and servants pampered them. They were all especially kind to Kai; she could swear they tried to wash every individual strand of her hair. They carefully avoided her sensitive piercings and scrubbed her skin clean, cleaner than she had felt since the last time she'd had an elvish bath.

When she emerged from the water, she felt rejuvenated. They plaited her hair, and asked if she wanted to keep the necklace she had on. She wore the simbelmyne pendant because she wanted to remember the good things attached to it, Galadriel, Legolas… but it was a death-flower, and she was a slave. She might remember good things but they were merely memories. She had to remember that too.

Tonight, she took off the Simbelmyne necklace and handed it to Arwen, "_My lady if I may trouble you, I cannot wear this any longer. But it should not be destroyed. Perhaps if we meet again you might return this to me?"_

Arwen smiled, "_Certainly…in exchange, wear this. It was brought here by a servant of Legolas' while we were at the bath. He asked me to give it to you."_

Arwen handed Kai a small black bag inside which was a green and silver leaf, the emblem of Mirkwood. Kai smiled and put on the necklace. As she looked in the mirror she saw Lithil again… this would truly anger Boromir.

Arwen seemed to read her mind, "_You deserve a night of freedom. You deserve a lifetime, but perhaps tonight must do until you can get that which you truly deserve._"

Lithil smiled, not Kai. Lithil nodded. Lithil agreed.

It was Lithil, not Kai, who walked side by side with Arwen down the halls of Rivendell's vast palace, making their way to dinner as though this was almost an entirely social visit.

But there was Boromir, waiting at the door. He bowed graciously to Arwen and looked Lithil up and down.

"Kai! I've never seen you look so…so beautiful! You are truly a sight!"

The name struck her, and she remembered what she was. Inside she could hear Legolas' laughter and she felt the Mirkwood leaf tickle her skin.

Kai entered dinner on Boromir's arm, but the first thing Legolas saw was Lithil, as beautiful as ever, and he vowed he would never see her in rags again.

Dinner was polite, full of elves making not-so-veiled jibes at Boromir for enslaving a princess. Then the dwarf party would not-so-innocently directly insult the elves. It was all Lord Elrond could do to maintain peace. The food was divine, and Kai ate as if she had been starved. It had been far too long since she had tasted elvish cuisine, and she could not deny that she had hungered for it intensely.

Legolas could barely eat, his appetite minimal because his focus was entirely on his wife. There she was…so close…_so close_….

He just wanted dinner to end and dancing to begin…surely he might have at least one dance with her. Surely her master could not deny her that.

In fact, Boromir took Kai by the arm and led her directly up to Legolas after dinner.

"My Prince of Mirkwood, I am sure you would like the pleasure of dancing with a wife long-missed."

Both elves looked at him oddly; they had not expected this from him. Legolas wound his arms around Lithil and nodded to Boromir, "My thanks."

Boromir did not pry them apart. Not after the first dance, the tenth dance or the twentieth. On the last dance of the night he walked up to them. They were smiling, laughing. When it became clear that they would be permitted to dance all night together they had talked with abandon, made each other laugh, and their enjoyment was contagious. Everyone around them was bubbling over with joy despite the dark mission that began in the morning. They had almost forgotten about Boromir entirely.

Which is exactly what he wanted.

At the end of the last dance, he bowed to them, and they bowed back. Happy…smiling…the very picture of love.

He grabbed Lithil's arm, "Come, Kai, we should go to bed before the morning."

The way he said it, the way he grabbed her… he had meant to show Legolas and Lithil both that he had control over them. He had meant to show that he was the giver and taker of their joy.

Legolas resisted his urge to react. He had to be calm. He could not constantly be fighting with Boromir. Even he had argued against Lithil coming with the Fellowship because he knew this would be a problem.

Lord Elrond walked up behind him and clasped his shoulder, "_You are doing much better at containing yourself around him, Legolas."_

_"I am trying…my Lord, why did you agree to let her come with the Fellowship."_

Lord Elrond looked distant, "_Because it will be the only way to truly end her enslavement. All other paths end in her sacrificing her freedom, or fading."_

He looked deeply at the young elf beside him, "_At times it will not seem like it, Legolas, but this is the best path. At your darkest hour know that this road will make you better, stronger and it will reward you with all that you desire and deserve. But this road, the best road, is the hardest."_

_"I understand…at least I accept that what you say is true. Later I will understand it, now I can only get through it."_

Legolas did not sleep that night, but he did dream…it was not hard to guess of whom.

To be continued…

A.N.

So I saw a review in my email for this and it reminded me that this story still exists…so I gave you guys some more! I know, its been forever. I'm a bad person. But its an early Christmas present!

Happy holidays!


	16. Concerning Hobbits

A/N- a wonderful reviewer reminded me this story existed : - ) PMs work wonders! Sorry it has been forever but I promise you I do actually know how the story goes even though there's nothing on paper yet so just keep bugging me.

Big news- a novel of mine is sitting in an agents' hand pending approval for representation so everyone keep your fingers crossed!

_Italics indicate elvish_

Chapter 15- Concerning Hobbits

"Right or left, Gandalf?" The lead hobbit asked and Lithil wanted to answer him but let the wizard direct him. She smiled as the Fellowship took its first steps out of Rivendell.

"This is off to a great start." Boromir muttered out of his breath. The morning had been a string of complaints from him about why Frodo would lead, why not one of the experienced travelers, and especially the complaint of walking in ranks—why wouldn't the Fellowship walk in their ranks? If they did Boromir assumed he would be ahead of Aragorn. Lithil knew that ranks established in an elven realm would still put him just above the Hobbits because Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn and herself all out-ranked him. However, she let him think whatever he wanted. Her input wouldn't change his mind anyway.

"All journeys begin by establishing a direction." Aragorn whispered in return and Lithil smirked.

"_He never asks."_ Lithil hissed.

Just as Boromir was going to snip at her one of the Hobbits popped up beside her.

"Hello." He reached up a hand to her, "I'm Pippin."

On her other side another Hobbit appeared, "And I'm Merry."

She smiled and laughed at them as they both reached up their hands to shake hers and gave each other dirty looks as if they were blaming the other for trying to steal Lithil's attention. Lithil shook both their hands at the same time, "You may call me Lithil."

"You may call her Kai." Boromir interrupted, "That's her name."

The Hobbits looked between Boromir and Lithil and shrugged. When they spoke they traded off sentences at a dizzying speed, "We'll call her whatever she likes. Is Kai like a nickname? We both have nicknames. I'm not really Pippin, it's short for Peregrin. He's Meriadoc. You can see why we have the nicknames. Nicknames are just easier. How do you get Kai from Lithil? Is it an elf thing? Do the names mean anything? Do our names mean anything in elvish? Can you give us elvish nicknames? Can you give us food?"

Lithil laughed at their childlike energy and at the exasperated look Boromir gave them—as if he was wondering when they breathed between sentences.

"Food? We just left Rivendell after breakfast, young Masters." He commented and the Hobbits attached themselves to his hip to explain the intricacies of second breakfast. Aragorn rolled his eyes at them and told Lithil, "_He'll never question the Hobbits when it comes to food ever again_."

She laughed and quickened her pace slightly until she was just behind Legolas. He had kept himself next to Gandalf as they left Rivendell.

"Trying to avoid her?" Gandalf guessed immediately.

"Trying to keep the peace." Legolas responded.

"Trying is a noble venture." Gandalf smiled and began a discussion on moss in Mirkwood.

When Lithil walked up behind them the discussion had turned to native bird species in the wood and she had to smile, "_Don't ask Legolas about birds in the wood, he has a terrible aversion to them ever since they stole his first arrow."_

Legolas turned around and fixed a playfully angry look on her, "_That was an isolated incident."_

_ "If that's how you want to remember it I won't tell Mithrandir about how they stole your crown one summer."_

_ "Yes, we wouldn't want Mithrandir to hear that story, would we?" _He smiled and extended an arm to her indicating she should catch up and walk next to him. He let his hand touch her lower back for a moment but then dropped it. It was too early in the journey to aggravate a fight from Boromir.

"Tell me, Lithil, do you know much about Hobbits?" Gandalf asked.

"I've just met Masters Pippin and Merry so I've already been well informed about how fast they can speak. And how hungry they can get."

Upon mention of Pippin and Merry, Frodo and Sam turned around and Lithil was finally introduced to the Ringbearer and his brave Sam. Legolas half-listened to everything that was said but mostly he watched Lithil's face. She lit up as they told her funny stories and her eyes melted with affection when she saw how dedicated these little men were. Legolas noticed Sam blush around Lithil more than he should and suspected that even in her less than glamorous state she enthralled the Hobbit. Legolas was sympathic, he always found Lithil enthralling.

Lithil turned her head to look for the rest of the party and saw Boromir laughing with Merry and Pippin.

"I haven't heard him laugh in so long… it seems the Hobbits are wonderful for morale."

"Only when well fed." Gandalf added, "You should hear Merry and Pippin when they've gone a day with only three meals."

"How long have you known him?" Sam asked, stammering a little when he said _him_ as though he had debated saying Boromir's name but then thought better of it.

"All his life. I've been a servant of his family for a very long time."

"How long?" Frodo asked.

"A thousand years."

Frodo and Sam looked at her dumbfounded and Sam shook his head, "You must really love it there! A thousand years… I don't reckon I can understand that sort of time."

Lithil tilted her head as if she meant to shake it, "One day I will tell you a little more about why I have been there so long but not today. Too many stories are all being told at once on this day and if any more come out they will get all muddled up."

A sadness passed before her eyes and Legolas reached his hand to touch the small of her back again just to comfort her. Frodo's eyes caught the motion and studied it before turning his eyes to Legolas' face. He seemed to watch Lithil the way some men looked at paintings—with adoration and wonder. Lithil turned to Legolas and caught his gaze for a moment and Frodo saw it then—a love that he could not put into words. He knew it instantly that these two had once been completely captivated with one another in a way that he had never known and might never know. It made him wonder where Legolas had been for the last thousand years and whether or not Lithil's servitude permitted their love to exist. Frodo remembered whispers around Rivendell but he had hardly gotten the whole explanation. Half of the argument in the Council over whether or not Lithil should come was spoken in elvish and Westron and the parts that came out in the Common tongue were vague.

"I would love to hear your story one day, Lady Lithil, as you've been listening so wonderfully to mine which I doubt is as interesting." Frodo smiled at her and hoped that she would feel happy at some point during this perilous journey where so little joy would be found.

"Thank you Frodo Baggins." Lithil leaned down and kissed his brow; Sam blushed purple when she did and wished that he had been the one to say something pretty to her.

"Is it _Lady_?" Frodo asked, "I know so little of elvish titles."

Lithil looked to Gandalf and whispered, _"I don't know what to tell him. What do you think will keep the peace?"_

_ "Peace is more wild than people give it credit for being."_ He muttered back and turned to Frodo, "Lithil is many things and a Lady has certainly been one of them. She has been a princess too but in her current place you could call her merely Lithil."

"A princess?" Sam awed, "Is that true, miss, a princess? That's a mighty fine thing."

"I thought Stewards were not considered princes?" Frodo asked.

"They aren't." Gandalf replied with a smile, "And is it Caradhras that you still wish to ford my fearless Hobbit?"

Frodo was distracted by Gandalf's shift in topic but pushed the information about the Stewards into the back of his mind, "Yes, Caradhras I think. You still think the Gap of Rohan unstable?"

"The Gap of Rohan?" Lithil echoed, "Far too close to Isengard. If the stories Arwen whispered to me were true than we can have nothing to do with Saruman the Corrupt during this journey."

"Then the lady makes me hold resolutely with my decision to take Caradhras." Frodo nodded.

Far too soon it was nightfall and the company were settling down, making dinner, and assigning guard posts.

"I shall take first watch." Aragorn droned, "Legolas second, Gandalf third, then Boromir shall take the shift before dawn and wake us. Tomorrow it shall be first Samwise, then Gimli, then Lithil, and then Merry and Pippin."

"Kai is to take a watch?" Boromir asked as he gnawed on a rabbit's leg, "Is that necessary?"

"There can be no bodies on this quest that do not contribute. Lithil shall take shifts like any of us." Aragorn replied.

"She is an elf, Boromir, never forget that. She and Legolas will be able to take longer shifts than any of us for elves do not sleep as we sleep. They are a great asset to us, especially as we dive deeper into the dark places of this earth." Gandalf clamped down on his pipe at the end of his rant and Lithil studied his face looking for the source of that dark tone that kept creeping into his words. She could not find it.

"How do you sleep?" Pippin asked.

"We sleep with waking dreams." Legolas answered as he cut an apple in half and offered part to Lithil. Boromir watched as she accepted it and when he offered her some of the rabbit he had caught she passed it along to the Hobbits.

"What does that mean?" Merry piped up as he took Lithil's offered rabbit and swallowed it almost without chewing.

"It means we do not close our eyes but as we wake we focus less on what is around us and retreat into our thoughts. It is not sleep as you know it because anything that happens in our present will immediately draw our attention back to it. We also do not need to rest much, we are made to go without it." Lithil responded as she nibbled delicately on her apple and petted a stray hair out of Merry's face, a motion that almost made him choke on his dinner.

"Do you wish you could dream?" Pippin asked and Gandalf was about to shush them when Legolas added, "We do dream, just differently. It doesn't make our dreams less beautiful or terrifying that we are still awake when we dream them. Sometimes it makes them even more potent than we want them to be."

"How is that a bad thing?" Merry squeaked before Gandalf smacked the back of his head to indicate that it was time to stop talking.

"Sometimes you can't have what you dream about. The more realistic the dream, the more painful the feeling of deprivation." Lithil whispered and slipped the seeds from her apple into a small patch of earth.

Legolas pushed dirt over the top of the apple seeds and they shared a look that Frodo saw and understood meant that they had dreamed of having one another for many years only to wake and find themselves alone.

He tugged at Gandalf's robe and asked, "Is Legolas a prince?"

Gandalf nodded and went back to smoking his pipe.

Frodo looked at the patch of land where Lithil was patting the dirt over the top of her seeds and Legolas reached over and threaded his fingers through hers. Their hands laid intertwined over the patch of earth for a few moments before Aragorn announced that everyone should get to bed and Boromir pulled Lithil towards his sleep pallet and threw an arm around her waist. All the Hobbits watched both Boromir's action and the response of everyone else, but most importantly, the response of Legolas. No one said anything or did anything so the Hobbits assumed that in some way everything was going according to some plan.

They wanted to ask, but somehow knew it would be one question too many.

Frodo's eyes stayed on Legolas and saw that Legolas' hand stayed on top of the apple seeds for a few minutes as though he still savored the feeling of their hands being together.

"Will you dream tonight, Prince Legolas?" Frodo asked.

Legolas turned sad eyes to him, "I dream every night, Master Frodo."

Years later when Frodo of the Nine Fingers walked down that same path on his way back home he would see an apple tree in full bloom perched on that very spot.

A/N—I'm feeling a little wired and perhaps will put up a second chapter tonight ! Please review and feel free to Private Message me until this is done : - )


	17. Bringing Down the Mountain

A/N—thanks for the reviews! Also to answer a question posed in one—Lithil is supposed to be blonde but a more silvery blonde then Legolas. Originally she was dark haired by my Daughter of Telcontar heroine was dark haired and I felt badly giving someone else her look.

Chapter 16- Bringing Down the Mountain

For days they walked and talked, the members of the Fellowship all getting to know one another. Lithil was the center of male attention and only the dwarf was slow to acknowledge her presence. Gandalf and Aragorn were unofficially in charge of monitoring the amount of focus given to Lithil at a given time because they did not want to prompt Boromir into staking his claim on her. They did not want to know what Boromir staking his claim on Lithil would do to Legolas because there weren't any closed doors for Boromir to take Lithil behind—anything he decided to do with her would be done in front of her husband.

"What do you think will come of all this, Gandalf?" Aragorn asked as he watched Pippin and Merry fall over themselves singing a song for Lithil, "What do you think her presence is going to bring this company?"

Gandalf chewed on his pipe and stared at Caradhras which was looming larger and larger every hour.

"You have long lived with the elves, Aragorn. You understand how they bond, how they love, how they comprehend loyalty and devotion."

Aragorn's face darkened and he gripped Arwen's necklace, "Yes. I know their love well."

"Then you understand the sacrifices Lithil has made in the name of loyalty. You understand the pain is causes them both even when they are on opposite ends of this earth. Now they are inches away and the pain sears them like an open flame. I can see the bruises on their hearts growing darker and darker with each passing day and it is mesmerizingly horrible. It is hard when the present is so bleak and painful to look to the future but in the future, in this future, there is some hope for us all. It is precariously balanced and could well fall through and into darkness but if all treads faithfully onward Legolas and Lithil may well find an end to their suffering."

"Is their happiness even in their hands? If their choices had any bearing on their suffering wouldn't it have ended long ago."

Gandalf's eyes cut at Aragorn like a knife and he snipped, "You speak like the most shallow of men and not like a king of nations. Their choices have kept peace in the elvish kingdoms, their choices have kept them alive. Their choices are far-reaching they are not selfish."

Aragorn looked downcast and flicked his eyes to Boromir. The Steward's son had marched next to Lithil and stolen the attention of the Hobbits; without needing to tell her Lithil began to walk behind him with her eyes on the ground. A few feet away Legolas was humming a song and if Aragorn hadn't been so familiar with elves he would have missed the twitch of Lithil's ears that told him she was engrossed with listening to the elf-prince's singing.

"Men who own Lithil have long ignored her—they have to in order to live with what they do to her. Men ignore much of Middle Earth to live with how they mistreat it. Men will have to decide about more than just Lithil's freedom if they wish to stand against Sauron and win."

"And how can Men do this?" Aragorn asked.

"They will need to open their eyes." Gandalf smiled, "It's not something you can do for them, Aragorn, whether you are a Ranger or a King."

Aragorn grunted and rolled his eyes. Men were content in their blindness and he knew that better than most. He kept his grip on the Evenstar pendant and hoped, wished, understood that Lithil's freedom was closely linked to his own future marriage. Men would have to acknowledge Lithil's right to reign as a princess of elves if they were to accept a princess of elves as a Queen of Men and if Lithil continued to be treated like a second-class being then so would Arwen when she arrived in Minas Tirith.

As they walked Aragorn began to sing in Elvish… he sang for the Evenstar, for Luthien, for the freedom to love when it was forbidden.

Legolas and Lithil listened and as Aragorn sang a single tear fell down Lithil's cheek.

Sam noticed her tear and asked, "Miss Lithil, why are you crying?"

"Aragorn is singing a beautiful song… it touches me to my soul."

"What's it about?" Pippin asked and Frodo turned to them, for he understood The Lay of Luthien, and answered, "He sings about the truth of love. And loss."

Boromir eyed Lithil's tear and wrapped an arm around her waist. Legolas noticed but forced himself to remain silent.

The Hobbits stopped the company for lunch but the elves were not hungry. They volunteered to go scouting for fruit and vegetables to replace the stock the Hobbits were quick to devour. When Boromir was amused with Merry and Pippin's recipe for field mushrooms Legolas and Lithil snuck into nearby woods following the smell of fresh, ripening apples.

When they were far enough away from their companions they climbed trees like they had when they were little more than elflings together. They raced to the tallest branches of the trees and made a game of collecting apples from progressively more precarious places. When their pouches were full Lithil was lounging on a curved branch by the heart of the tree, laughing as Legolas danced between two twigs that didn't look like they could support his weight, and catching a glance at the path that led back to the camp.

"_Worried they'll be missing us?" _Legolas asked and slid down the branches to curl up beside her.

"_We haven't been gone long enough for the Hobbits to finish a meal." _She looked at Legolas, at how close they were, and let herself lean against him and bury her head in the crook of his neck, "_Besides, I think Aragorn and Gandalf will buy us time."_

_ "Do you think Frodo has guessed it?"_ Legolas smoothed Lithil's hair behind her ear and paid careful attention not to hit the pierced portions, "_It sickens me to see your ears like this_."

"_Frodo knows more than he says but I don't think he knows the whole story yet." _Lithil pressed a kiss against Legolas' cheek, "_It sickens me to see you so tense. This is the first time you've relaxed since Rivendell._"

"_Don't compare my tension to your state. He doesn't treat you well." _Legolas frowned, "_And I never want to know if he has been better or worse to you than the rest of them. I'd rather pretend you've never been treated worse."_

_ "Then pretend, my love."_ She cupped his cheek and made him look into her eyes, "_Can't you look at me and what they've done_."

"_You're all I look at even when you are not here."_

She smiled and he kissed her.

"_You two shouldn't assume that the Hobbits' appetite can distract Gandalf from getting to Mordor as quickly as possible." _Aragorn's voice didn't make them jump apart like criminals but rather savor the last sweet moment they had to pretend that they were alone.

"_Well we've collected enough apples to keep the Hobbits occupied for quite a while_." Lithil's smile saddened and she leapt gracefully down from the tree. Legolas landed noiselessly a second behind her.

Aragorn betrayed himself by touching his pendant which both elves recognized as the Evenstar and then said, "_Try to keep the peace a little longer."_

"_A wise man once told me trying is a noble venture._" Legolas responded and whisked his hand across Lithil's cheek one last time.

The three returned back to the group with the fresh apples brimming over the bags. The Hobbits immediately eyed the succulent red fruit but Boromir's eyes strayed somewhere different. His eyes were instantly devouring Lithil as if trying to seek out any obvious marks that Legolas had touched her without his permission. A rage began to simmer in Boromir as he walked over to her and without pausing crushed his lips against Lithil's.

Legolas' face darkened and he sneered at Aragorn, "_I'm trying_."

Merry and Pippin paused in admiring the apples to whisper, "Which one is supposed to be angrier?"

"I don't know."

"Are we supposed to know?"

"I don't think so."

Boromir pulled back from the kiss and licked his lips, "Woody."

Legolas snarled and went to pack his arrows, "_I'm trying. Very. Hard."_

Gandalf snapped his stick on the ground and for a moment everyone felt lighter…everyone except Boromir. His eyes darted from Lithil to the Ring that dangled precariously from Frodo's neck as if wondering how he was supposed to have any control over his life at all when everything seemed to be slipping out of his grasp.

The mountain became snowy and cold and Boromir growled that Lithil needed to walk beside him even as he struggled to go through the ever increasing snow. At one point Frodo fell and when he stood the Ring was gone from his neck. It was Boromir that grabbed it and stared at it for a moment. Aragorn ensured that the Ring was returned but as soon as Boromir was walking in line again Aragorn asked that Lithil walk with him for a change.

"_Watch him closely… there's a hunger in his eyes I do not trust."_

_ "There is a rage in his eyes I do not trust."_ Lithil looked at her master warily and gripped Aragorn's arm, "_Promise me that you will not let the Fellowship fall if he takes his anger out on me. Promise me that if something happens you will keep Legolas in his place. That you stay in your own place and not challenge him."_

Aragorn looked at her as if he was insulted, "_I do not want to give you that promise._"

"_You are not a king yet, Aragorn son of Arathorn,_ _and you cannot fight his claim to me without a crown on your head. Do not fight him. With that rage in his eye and that evil Ring so close I am afraid that he will not remember the difference between friend and foe. I, at least, am no king."_

_ "You are a princess."_

_ "Not in the last thousand years… promise me what I ask."_

Aragorn sighed and pressed his fingers to his brow, "_I promise._"

"Thank you, Aragorn."

"Thanking him for what? What have you two been talking about?" Boromir's tone was dark and suspicious.

"I was asking if Aragorn would take first watch tonight and I could have first watch tomorrow. He has been kind enough to switch." Lithil sounded innocent and Boromir believed her but pulled her back towards him, insisting that she carry his pack so that he could help Merry and Pippin wade through the snow. Legolas watched as Boromir piled his bag, his shield, and his rations on Lithil's back as if she were a mule.

To his credit, he kept silent.

Perhaps it was his struggle to walk away from that scene that propelled him ahead of the group and he heard the words on the wind.

"There is a foul voice on the air."

Gandalf blanched, a difference that was apparent even though he was surrounded by snow, and the wizard tried to fight Saruman. The mountain rumbled and Legolas turned to look at the group.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain!" Aragorn screamed, "We must turn back!"

"NO!" Gandalf cried and once more tried to fight Saruman's spells.

"We could make for the Gap of Rohan and turn to Gondor!" Boromir yelled but Aragorn responded, "That takes us too close to Isengard!"

"The Mines of Moria!" Gimli the dwarf spoke, "We could make for the mines!"

Gandalf's eyes blackened and Lithil whimpered. The wizard growled, "No!"

Lithil looked at Legolas and shook her head but she could not tell him what she wanted to before the mountain roared and covered the party in snow.

Surrounded by white Lithil was more calm than she would be surrounded by the blackness of Moria, and she knew that all too well. She wanted to stay in the snow and made no motion to escape. Hands grappled at her and pulled her out of the snow by her hair… Boromir stood with the Hobbits Merry and Pippin cowering under him and he asked her, "Are you hurt, Kai?"

"No my Lord."

"Then you must help with the Halflings. They will not make it through this terrible weather much longer."

Lithil nodded and opened her arms for a Hobbit. Merry and Pippin elbowed one another until Pippin finally won the honor of being carried by Lithil. Merry crawled into Boromir's arms, Sam into Legolas' and Frodo was safely encased in Aragorn's grip.

They made it far enough away from the snow that had threatened to smother them and the arguments over where to go ensued.

"The Gap is out of the question."

"The Mines are a better choice."

Lithil lost all the color in her cheeks and darkly added, "Anything but the mines."

The dwarf was angered by her words and groaned, "What? Is the elvish lady too delicate for the mines? Are they too dark and dank and dirty for her liking? They are the safest route South even if the Elves might wish to stay under the stars—it is the stone that shall deliver us best."

"Lithil and I have been raised underground, the mines' darkness is not the issue." Legolas defended his wife even as Boromir glared at him, "If Lithil objects to the mines it must be for a different reason."

"Then let her state it plainly."

All eyes turned to Lithil and she seemed to wither like a dead leaf. Pippin looked at her and tried to get her attention but she seemed lost within herself, "She's shaking."

"It's freezing." Gimli countered but Legolas shook his head, "Elves can't feel the cold. She can't be shivering from cold."

Aragorn watched her eyes as they stopped shining and he was shocked, "She looks traumatized, she looks terrified."

"That isn't reason enough to deny the mines." Gimli said, "Can we really fight the White Wizard and survive? Isn't the Ring the most important thing not the comfort of the woman Elrond sent to distract us all?"

"ENOUGH!" Bellowed Gandalf, "Let the Ringbearer decide."

Lithil shook her head, "Yes. Let Frodo decide."

The Hobbit had never looked smaller then he did at that moment. He studied Lithil's face, her fearful eyes, but looked at Gandalf. He knew that the Gray Wizard would not be able to protect the Fellowship from Saruman and survive. He knew that the Gap of Rohan was too close to Isengard. He knew there wasn't really a choice…

"We go through the Mines of Moria."

Lithil heard the words and stumbled to keep her legs steady. She leaned against Aragorn and watched as blackness tore through her vision begging her to give into it.

But Boromir grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her against him yelling, "Stand up and stop embarrassing me! Stop feigning distaste for the Mines and lend a hand to this Fellowship. Grab the bags."

Silently, slowly, Lithil did as she was told. She began walking away from the group and Boromir yelled, "Come back here, where do you think you're going?"

"She's going towards the mines." Gandalf replied, "She's been there."

"When?" Merry gulped, suddenly afraid at Lithil's reaction to the mines.

Gandalf eyed Legolas and said, "Almost three thousand years ago."

Merry laughed, "Oh well I bet its much changed now. Probably pleasant."

Something itched at the back of Legolas' head because he did not know that Lithil had been to dwarf country… and he did not know what caused the terror behind her eyes.

A/N- I'm actually really excited for the next chapter… maybe you guys will get a whole mess of updates this week! I'm re-reading this story and realizing the major stylistic differences between the high schooler that started writing this and the college grad continuing it and I thank god for a liberal arts English education. Hope you guys are enjoying the maturity as well!

REVIEW! Or I might forget to keep updating :- )


	18. Resistance

A/N – unemployment has helped me update long neglected fics… y'all still reading?

_Italics = elvish_

Chapter 17- Resistance

Elves walked with feet that barely bent the blades of grass but Lithil's feet dragged heavily, leaving a trail through the snow and mud, with each step growing heavier as Moria grew closer. Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf noticed but they did not want to mention it to the rest of the group. Gandalf knew why she was acting the way she was and it bothered Legolas that he did not.

"_Will you not tell me, Mithrandir?"_ The elf asked.

"_Any other time I would gladly tell you but this journey is not about Lithil or you. It is not the time to let dark things from our pasts get in the way of Frodo taking the Ring to Mount Doom. We must be focused. We must all sacrifice something."_

Legolas' eyes narrowed, "_I understand what sacrifice is, Mithrandir."_

_ "Can you tell me?"_ Aragorn asked, "_I am worried about her."_

_ "Are you more worried about Frodo getting to Mordor as safely as possible?"_ Gandalf shook his head, "_I cannot be the one to tell you. If she wants to then she will… but do you not think she would have told you already if she wanted you to know, my prince?"_

Legolas fell silent, ashamed that he had not been told this secret of his wife's, and let his eyes pour over her searching for the answer to the question in his mind. He watched the dwarf, the only happy light-hearted member of the party, humming mining songs and smiling ever more broadly at the rocks. The Hobbits, Frodo more than the rest, kept a wary eye on Lithil as though her reaction was influencing theirs. Part of Frodo felt guilty for choosing the mines but he also knew that the journey of the Ring was going to be full of decisions like this—decisions of choosing the lesser of two bad choices.

The Hobbit looked over at Legolas and asked, "How did you meet Lithil?"

Legolas regarded the Hobbit strangely and Frodo explained, "It's quite clear to me that you met Lithil before this journey. I think you knew her very well at some point. I was just curious as to how you met."

Legolas' blue eyes shot between Boromir and Lithil. Hearing the story would only aggravate an already very aggravated Boromir but on the other hand it might cheer up Lithil.

It didn't take the elf long to decide who was more important to him.

"I am a prince in my country." He began, "And the youngest of four siblings. I was always hungry for companionship outside of my siblings and one day a servant girl came into our employ. She was my mother's special favorite and being that she was almost my age my mother set us to playing together all the time. We would race up trees, dash through rivers, ride horses and do many other childhood games."

Lithil turned her head over her shoulder, her eyes looking heavy and purple with stress, "One day the prince's mother died, which is very uncommon for elves, and I grew very weak from despair. Legolas nursed me back to health. We knew, then, that it was more than just a childhood fondness. We knew it was love."

Legolas smiled at her but it did not change her expression and he could not understand what would. The elves were silent and Sam coughed, "What happened then? How did Lithil come to be a servant in Gondor?"

Boromir turned around pushed Lithil ahead of them, "That's enough stories for now, I think."

Lithil's steps grew so tense and forced that she fell to the back of the group within minutes. They were approaching a narrow path that wound around the mountain and would lead them to the gate into Moria and the closer they got to the path the slower Lithil moved. Legolas walked next to her and tried to encourage her but it was useless.

"_Please, my love, try to keep up. I know you are frightened but I do not know of what… please tell me. Tell me and I'll protect you." _He pleaded, "_Tell me and I'll keep you safe, I swear."_

Lithil's eyes grew wide with fear, "_Can't you understand that I cannot speak of it? I cannot utter a word of it? I want to, I do, I've wanted to tell you before, but even the thought of the word I must say makes my throat close. I can't tell you."_

Legolas' feet crossed onto the pathway and Lithil froze.

"I cannot go any further." She said in a voice so choked up it was a wonder she wasn't crying.

Boromir called to her, "Keep coming!"

"No!" She shook her head violently, "I can't! I won't! I'll find another way to go to Gondor and I will wait there for the Fellowship but I cannot travel through the Mines."

Gimli snorted, too offended to retort, and Gandalf tensed at Lithil, "_Please keep moving, little one. Please."_

"I'm sorry, Gandalf, but I can't. I can't. It's still too soon."

"Too soon? Since what?" Boromir demanded.

"Since I was last here. I can't go back in, my lord."

Boromir growled, "It's been three thousand years since you were last here! It is impossible that you could need more time! You will come now or so help me I will make you come!"

Legolas eyed Boromir as he threatened Lithil and Aragorn eyed Legolas. The Ranger put an arm around the elf-prince and asked, sharply, if Legolas would help Sam untether the pony.

"Boromir, there's no need to threaten her." Aragorn tried to instill some peace in the company but Boromir reached out and grabbed Lithil's arm to drag her along anyway. She pulled her arm out of his grasp and he stared at his empty hand in surprise—Lithil had never physically stopped him from dominating her before. He tried to grab her again but she pulled her arm away from him and lighted a few feet away on a rock.

"I swear to you, Boromir, that you will not get me into that mine without a great protest. I will run, I will escape, I will flee."

"Is that so?" Boromir asked and before Lithil could react he threw a rope around her neck and pulled her from the rock she was on. When she was on the ground he took a chain from his belt and fastened two ends of it to the hooped rings in her ears and held onto the long end.

"A leash?" Legolas growled and his hands fell onto his long white hunting knives. Aragorn was too stunned to speak—one of the elves of middle earth leashed like a misbehaved donkey? Impossible. Unthinkable.

Boromir tugged on the chain and Lithil whimpered as her sensitive ears were pulled. She started walking but protested the whole time, "Please…. Please! Let me go!"

One thing that the rest of the company noticed was how Lithil tried to keep her voice down. Even as her pleading got more intense she tried not to scream and when Boromir pulled her so hard that she fell to her knees she even shushed Sam when he tried to yell in her defense.

"Shhh! Shhh! Master Hobbit keep your voice down! You do not want to waken things in the deep places of the world—best to let them sleep. Please! Keep your voice down!"

And so in a very low voice Samwise Gamgee looked at the Steward of Gondor and held a frying pan menacingly, "I think it best you let her off that chain before you hurt her and I'll have to hurt you! That's cruel, it is, and not right. She's an elf—not an animal!"

Boromir ignored the Hobbit and pulled Lithil until they came to the spot where the door should be. Gandalf showed the company how the gate would glow in the moonlight but was stumped when he could not remember the password.

"Tell him the password, Kai." Boromir said.

"No."

Boromir's eyes hardened and he tugged at her leash, "Tell him, you must know."

Tears came to Lithil's eyes when he tugged on her ears but she would not even open her mouth to refuse his request. Her silence seemed to enrage Boromir and he pulled on her chain so hard that it ripped all six of Lithil's earrings clean off of her ears and left the most sensitive part of her body in a bloody, ragged and painful lump.

At first the group watched in terror, Legolas and Aragorn understanding the pain she was in, and as Lithil opened her mouth to scream Aragorn dove for her mouth and clamped a hand over it. After all- if Lithil had been too frightened to talk above a whisper surely a blood-curdling scream would not help the situation? But as Aragorn was cupping Lithil's mouth Legolas dove for Boromir and had him pinned to the ground, a knife pressed firmly against the Steward's belt.

"Do you want to feel such pain, little man?" Legolas howled at him but Gandalf waved his staff and Legolas was thrown a few feet from Boromir. When Legolas was on his feet again Aragorn was calling to him. Lithil's screaming had stopped when her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was blissfully unconscious—in a place where the pain of her wound couldn't hurt her. The Hobbits all surrounded Boromir and kept him separate from Lithil with evil glares and deceptively heavy cooking utensils.

"Legolas! Come here and hold her ears! I need to bandage them but someone needs to hold them and stem the bleeding. I need something to bind them but that might have to wait until we are in open fields again—mud, especially cave mud, won't do any favors to an injury of an elf's ears."

Legolas was immediately assisting Aragorn as he bandaged Lithil's ears and the prince tried to talk to his wife and wake her but she was unreachable.

"_My love? My Lithil, please, wake up. Please?" _He looked to Aragorn and Gandalf, "_The last time I saw her eyes closed she almost faded…how bad is this? How hurt is she? Mithrandir, please, tell me before I lose my mind!"_

"It is going to be fine, Legolas. I was the one who sent her into the dreamworld. I did not want her to be awake with that pain but she is not fading. Do not worry, my prince, her eyes will open again." Gandalf eyed the blood that was trickling towards the lake that held The Watcher, "Soon, actually. Too soon, perhaps."

When Aragorn was done bandaging Lithil's wounds he wiped his hands on his clothing and pressed one to Legolas' arm, "Promise me that you will tend to her instead of seeking revenge for her."

Legolas' eyes lit a dark flame and he hissed, "I don't want to promise you that, it's an insult. You saw what he did to her—you've seen how he treated her the whole time. For him to rip her ears apart is unacceptable—even Elrond would punish him for it."

"But you are not Elrond and this is not Rivendell. This is not any realm where elves have dominion and you know as well as I that her healing will slow dramatically once she is underground. Care for her, tend to her, and none of us will let Boromir near her. I promise you that much."

After a few minutes the prince nodded and scooped Lithil into his arms as if she weighed nothing. Merry had wandered from Boromir over to Gandalf and triumphantly solved the message in time to race the Watcher's tentacles through the door. The party progressed in silence for almost a day. Every time Boromir inhaled as if he was planning to talk with the air Gandalf cast him a look that seemed to steal the desire to speak from him. Legolas stared at Lithil's bandages, which were soaked with blood by the end of every day, and kept muttering prayers that she would survive to see the end of the mines- that she would see the sunlight and the open fields again.

The day that Gimli shouted that he had found his cousin, Balin, Lithil stirred in Legolas' arms and woke as if from a deep sleep.

Instantly she looked around and paled, "We're in the mines."

Then she winced in pain as the sensation of bandages tightly tied around her ears registered in her head. She asked that Legolas let her walk but she held onto him like a crutch. Boromir wanted to comment on it but Gandalf once more robbed him of the ability to talk.

"Will you tell me what happened down here, my love?" Legolas whispered in her ear as he pressed a kiss against her forehead.

Lithil's eyes welled with tears, "This is the last place I saw your mother alive. She died in these mines. That is what your father never told you—he was afraid that you and your siblings wouldn't want to live in his palace if you knew your mother died underground. I'm surprised he could live underground knowing that she did."

Legolas stared at her, stricken dumb and having no idea what to do with the information given to him.

"What…what killed her?" He asked, a question he had always wanted to know the answer to but had stopped asking many thousands of years ago.

Gandalf turned and held a finger to his lips, demanding that the name not be invoked and Lithil listened to him.

Unfortunately Merry chose that moment to accidentally push a skeleton down a well. Which alerted a legion of orcs and their pet cave troll to the presence of the Fellowship. Legolas threw Lithil one of his long knives and she fought alongside the company against the troll but something disturbed Legolas with how deadly quiet she was. How serious. When they got into the hall and the first drum sounded Lithil threw her arms around Legolas and was shaking so horribly that he knew then and there the answer to a question he had wondered about for three thousand years….

It was a Balrog, that lived in the depths of Moria, that had killed his mother. A Balrog that had been awake three thousand years ago and then slept… until now.

To Be Continued

A/N- Sooooooo

How is everyone feeling?

R/R


	19. The Heart of Elvendom

A/N- Hello my delightful little nudgers- I haven't forgotten you!

Chapter 18- The Heart of Elvendom

Lithil ran. She ran and the Fellowship watched her running for a moment as if they were not sure they were going to follow. It was Gandalf who said what Lithil already knew: That the Balrog was beyond any of them and the only chance they had was to run.

She dodged the arrows, she wound through the paths that she barely remembered from her long ago childhood. Behind her she heard Legolas, Gandalf, and the rest of the Fellowship and knew that they would blindly follow her. She was so concerned with getting out that if Aragorn hadn't yelled ahead that there were arrows Lithil might have run straight into them.

"DUCK!" The screams echoed from behind her and without pausing Lithil ducked into a roll and kept running.

"THERE'S A GAP AHEAD!" She warned the Fellowship as she flew easily over the crater. Legolas was behind her and touched her arm, "Don't scatter ahead—we'll need help with the Hobbits."

She nodded and turned to help catch Pippin and Sam. Legolas looked over at her ears and whispered, "Can you hear the Orcs?"

"Oh yes. And the Balrog. And the echoes of all of your footprints."

"Can you hear the outside?"

"It is just up ahead, we will be there soon." Lithil frowned as Gimli nearly fell and reached out to help him. He stared at the elf for a moment as though she might push him through the Gap but she patted his shoulder, "Be careful! We don't want to lose you!"

He nodded and reached his axe up to block an arrow that was zooming close to them. In his own way he had just thanked her and she understood. They rushed along the cavern when they came to the bridge. Lithil came up short and looked at it nervously, turning to Legolas, "Go first, I'll follow behind the Hobbits."

Legolas eyed her, "You are _coming_, aren't you?"

"Yes but I just… I'll follow behind the Hobbits." She pushed forward and brushed a kiss against her husband's lips, "I promise you that I will not stay behind, my love."

There was no time to argue and Legolas sprinted across with Aragorn and the Hobbits. Boromir crossed and Lithil stayed with next to Gandalf. The wizened wizard looked over at her and petted her shoulder, fondly, _"It is time you cross this bridge, little one_."

"_After you."_

Gandalf looked at her sadly, "_No, little one. Not this time."_

Lithil's eyes widened as she understood, "_No."_

"_Yes."_ He gently pushed her forward, "_Your part in this is not yet over, my lady, but mine is. This is where Gandalf the Grey takes his last stand_."

Tears jumped to Lithil's eyes and she bit down her lip so stop from crying out. She turned her body and ran over the bridge where three thousand years ago the first inklings of danger and death had stained her trip to the Mines with Legolas' much beloved mother. Lithil ran until Legolas' arms caught her and she found that the Fellowship was staring at Gandalf as he faced the Balrog.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

And into the depths fell Gandalf.

Aragorn and Borormir had to hustle the Hobbits out of the cave. Gimli dragged himself along and Legolas clutched at Lithil, "What did he say?"

"He said it was his time."

There was a moment, outside of the mines, that everyone took a chance to shed a tear to the Great Gandalf.

"On your feet, Sam." Aragorn gently helped the Hobbit to his feet and the two elves turned their heads and nodded at the Ranger. They stood and both elves' craned their heads to the distant woods. For a moment the Hobbits stared at the two elves and were caught up in the beauty of the scene: the two were tall, sculpted, blonde with sparkling eyes, and stood facing the direction of Lothlorien still as rocks. They seemed strange in the rocks but the greenery just a short distance away seemed to compliment them perfectly. Boromir looked at the pair and aside from Lithil's bandaged ears he could see how they must have been a striking couple in a long time ago.

"Where do we go from here?" Boromir asked and Lithil looked at him, "To Lothlorien, the land of the Lady of Light, the center of the Elvish Realms."

Boromir looked slightly green as he ran his eyes over Lithil's ears. Had he known their paths would taken them here- would he have acted differently?

Lithil led the way with Aragorn beside her and Legolas just behind them. He wanted to be between Lithil and Boromir until they were safely in Galadriel's land and the only thing that kept his pure excitement for Lothlorien in check was the state of Lithil's ears. They were bleeding and pus was starting to drain from the wounds. The previously white ears were now blue and Legolas actually saw Lithil's teeth chatter as though she was cold….which should have been impossible.

Boromir and Gimli brought up the rear and the fascinated and grieving Hobbits were sandwiched inbetween. The dwarf and the Gondorian had the most to fear about the elves inside Lothlorien and Gimli liked to share the tales of the evil Elf Witch Galadriel to scare the Hobbits.

"It is said whoever looks into her eyes falls under her spell… and are _never_ heard from _again_." He dramatically finished.

Lithil laughed, "I'm sure her eyes will speak to you, son of Gloin, but I doubt that they will harm you. Unless you mean to harm her—then you may not leave these woods."

"I'll leave these woods when I please!" He insisted.

"You shall leave when _we_ please, Dwarf." A strange voice echoed and the company froze. Aragorn and the elves smiled at the voice and Lithil bowed her head, "_Greetings, Haldir of Lorien. We come in peace."_

_ "That remains to be seen_." Haldir dropped from a tree and his soldiers emerged from the trees with their bows drawn and pointed at the party, "_It has been many years since we last saw you here, Lithil Who-Was-Twice-A-Princess_,_ and you are greatly changed."_

Haldir reached a hand up and gently touched Lithil's chin, turning her head left and right to view her ears and he grunted deep in his chest_, "Much changed, my lady. The company you keep on this journey is a dark and troubled crew. How did you come to travel with The Ringbearer?"_

_ "By chance." _She admitted, "_We have a need of the Lady's hospitality- might we be shown the way?"_

_ "You might, for you already know it." _Haldir turned to Aragorn and Legolas, "_The rest of the Company must not learn the way to the Lady's palace. What would happen if they were to relay the path to the Enemy?"_

_ "Haldir, please, they can be trusted." _Aragorn broke in, "_Elrond trusted them with this mission, they can be trusted with the path to Lorien."_

"_Perhaps, Estel. But these are times of great trepidation and caution. Your party cannot simply pass through these woods."_

"Speak a language we can all understand!" Gimli growled in frustration. Aragorn glared at him for his outburst.

"We have not had dealings with the dwarves since the Dark Days." Haldir sneered and the Dwarf cursed at him in an ancient tongue.

"That was not very nice." Lithil chastised, "Most elves in this part of the world do not speak a language you can understand. The few that speak the Common Tongue have not practiced in many hundreds of years. Perhaps you should consider that they are being as polite as they can be in the circumstances."

"Why can't we all pass?" Frodo asked because he had understood enough of the argument to know that their passage was in question.

"Because elves may always come to Lorien for safety and rest," Haldir nodded to Legolas and Lithil, "especially princes and princesses of our people. But it has been many long ages since we last let so many strange creatures into our woods. Many of these trees were saplings the last time Men and Dwarves came here and Hobbits have never graced the land. You are not just any company of races but you bring great evil to the Caras Galadhon."

"We cannot help the time nor the situation in which we come, nor can we change what race we were born into. But we come to you needing aid against a common enemy and we come with pure intentions. If that is not enough for the Lady and her soldiers, then it is not enough." Frodo bowed his head in great fatigue, "We are sorely tired and in need of rest. If you cannot offer us any we must leave soon and find it elsewhere."

Lithil reached out a hand to Haldir's and he recoiled from her touch and stared at her in wonder, "_You are greatly in need of the Lady's attentions, Princess of Greenwood."_

_ "And I shall not accept it unless the whole company is allowed passage."_

_ "You and your mate may pass with open arms into the realm of Galadriel." _Haldir turned to Legolas, "_You should convince her to take the journey forward, son of Thranduil, or her path may fall into a very deep darkness."_

_ "I stand by her wishes and as much as I have desired to see Lorien with my own eyes I, too, will remain with the Company. We all go, or none of us shall." _Legolas reached out to hold Lithil's hand as a sign of unity and it took all the strength he had not to pull away from her the moment he touched her skin.

Her fingers were _cold_. He looked into her eyes and they were drawn with dark circles and her lips tinged blue. She was gravely ill—the underground dirt had greatly harmed her open ears and he did not think they would be easily treated. It took every ounce of his composure not to ignore his new promise and insist that Lithil travel forward with Haldir and beg Galaldriel to be healed.

It took some time but the Company were blindfolded and brought forward. Legolas scoffed at the blindfold but wore one just as every other new member coming to Lorien did. Lithil was not forced to wear one because she had already seen the path and also because her ears were so sensitive there would have been no way of tying the blindfold without causing her pain.

Inside Caras Galadhon the Fellowship were speechless—in utter awe of the beauty. Legolas' face shone with admiration and Lithil clutched his hand in understanding- Lorien was the most beautiful sight he would ever behold. Her cold hand was a reminder that the Fellowship was not his only priority here.

In front of the pedestal of the Lord and Lady of Light the Fellowship waited nervously to be received. Lithil breathed evenly and even smiled which made Legolas lighter. He nuzzled her cheek, "_Please do not be brave for her, Lithil. Ask her for help, you are not well."_

_ "I could not lie to the Lady if I wanted to…you will understand why soon enough."_

He felt the Lady before he saw her—her voice echoed in his head, _Welcome and Be At Peace, Legolas Son of Thranduil. Here you are safe and will once again know a complete happiness that you thought was lost to time. One part of your journey is out of the darkness and into the light._

Lithil smiled when she saw Legolas' face shift and knew the Lady was speaking with him. The fallen princess looked up to where the Lady's feet were just coming into view.

_It is good to see you once more my pretty fallen flower. _The Lady's voice danced through Lithil's head, _Do not fear for you are safe here and your time of being caged is over for a time. You are closer to freedom then you know so loan your strength to those who are still chained by the fates._

When the Lord and Lady were finally in front of the Fellowship it was Celeborn who stepped forward and cupped Lithil's chin and turned her head to investigate her ears much as Haldir had done.

"It seems that your troubles have been greater than anticipated." He pressed his hand to his heart and motioned towards Lithil to show that he was sorry for their troubles, "You may be assured of peace in this realm while you rest. Put your troubles behind you. Now tell me—where is Gandalf for I much desired to speak with him."

"He has fallen….into shadow." Galadriel spoke before a member of the Fellowship could speak and those of them that did not expect her to know about Gandalf looked shocked at her revelation. Lithil just smiled and knew that they were just beginning to understand the sheer power of the Lady of Light.

Boromir became choked up after the Lady held his gaze and Lithil looked worriedly at the Lady.

_Fear not, Lithil. He understands something of what he has been ignorant of until now. Be easy, never again will the Men of Gondor raise a hand to you._

Lithil let out a breath that she had been holding for thousands of years.

"Come with me, crowned heads of elves, for a desire a private audience. The rest of you may rest and be refreshed."

Boromir looked sadly at Lithil and for once she wished to speak to him but she followed Galadriel and Celeborn to their private chambers. Once inside their private rooms Galadriel sat Lithil down and gingerly began to take off the soaked bandages around Lithil's head.

"_You are lucky the Fellowship is fleet of foot or you might have bled to death."_ Galadriel clicked her tongue, "_I can help you."_

_ "Thank you, my Lady. Thank you very much."_ Lithil relaxed and allowed Galadriel to soak her ears and apply a thick sap from the heart of the trees.

Celeborn motioned Legolas into an adjourning room where a bath was drawn and flowers floated in placid circles. Candles were lit around the pool and there were birds nesting just above the room.

"_We thought you might want some time alone with your wife after so long being tormented with the presence of others…but a word of caution—even though death surrounds these woods and even though the Light of the Elvish people may be slowly fading the heart of this world is thriving with life. Be careful of drinking too deeply from the cup of life with so much darkness looming."_

_ "Thank you for your hospitality, my Lord."_

Soon Galadriel and Celeborn withdrew and left the Prince and Princess of Mirkwood alone in the room. Legolas removed his battle worn and bloody clothes and lowered his tense body into the water and instantly felt like years had been lifted off of him. He ducked his head under the water and washed his long yellow hair. When he came up for air he saw Lithil smiling at him.

"_How long has it been?"_

She was wearing a thin robe and soft gauze wrapped around her head and was tied delicately in a bow. His eyes raked over her body and he ached in every corner of his soul. He wanted to hold her, he wanted to feel her all around him and feel smothered by her.

"_Too long_."

Lithil took a step forward and dropped the robe, Legolas sucked in his breath and realized that all the scars had evaporated and she was every ounce the magnificent specimen he had fallen in love with all those years ago. She walked into the bath slowly and he looped an arm around her, drawing her against him, and she laughed as he tickled her sides. Lithil hooked one of her legs around his hips and pulled him forward for a kiss. All warnings were forgotten, all worries disappeared, and all that existed in the world was the pair of them.

To Be Continued.

A/N- Remember to keep pestering me to update! How did you like this latest edition?


	20. Light in the Midst of Darkness

A/N- Whenever one of you reviews during a lull I remember this story and pick it up again so keep doing it! Also a recent surge in The Lord of the Rings series on TV has definitely kept my plot bunnies burrowing in my head so keep reminding me about this! I have a new full-time job so I have less time but I still want to finish this story for all of you!

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Chapter 19- Light in the Midst of Darkness

Aragorn was helping the Hobbits adjust their beds and was watching Boromir out of the corner of his eye. Ever since they had arrived in Lothlorien and Lady Galadriel had taken Lithil and Legolas away from the rest of the Fellowship the man had been quiet. The Gondorian had neither objected nor commented on their continued absence and Aragorn was beginning to worry about him.

"Where did Lithil and Legolas go?" Pippin asked as he stuffed more of the soft leaves on the ground into his mattress.

"The Lady probably took them somewhere to be healed." Aragorn messed the Hobbit's hair and made sure they were comfortable before walking over to his Gondorian cousin, "How do you find Lorien?"

Boromir looked up and his face was softer than Aragorn remembered seeing it before. The man wiped a hand over his eyes, "It has been beautiful here… and troublesome."

Aragorn touched the Evenstar pendant on his throat, reminding himself that when Men found the beauty of elves they also found the pain, and gently asked, "What did the Lady say to you?"

"Nothing." Boromir's face was blank, "She said nothing to me. I was thinking of a world where Men reigned supreme on Middle Earth, and the strangest images thrust into my head. I saw the White Towers of Gondor burning and being replaced by new Towers of Black, I saw the Elvish Realms razed to the ground, I saw the land the Hobbits speak so lovingly of reduced to ash and I saw myself, wearing The One Ring, standing beside an army covered in black and stained in blood. I saw our little Hobbits tortured, I saw Lithil at the mercy of Orcs and Legolas dying as he tried to defend her. I tried to go towards her to help but Legolas looked at me as if I was one of the Orcs but when I looked down at myself … I was one of them. I was one of those terrible creatures that I have fought against for so long."

Boromir sighed and lifted his head towards the clouds, "The Lady said nothing to me, she just showed me what might become of me if I continued as I am and got what I wished for. Her silence to me frightened me more than anything else..."

Aragorn shivered as if the death in Boromir's vision were standing next to him, tickling his chin, and he put a comforting hand on Boromir's shoulder, "That is not yet the fate of the world, or you. If you did not like it…change it."

The other man nodded and whispered, "Do you think the Lady could heal her?"

"I think the Lady healed her the first night they were here."

"Do you think they are content?"

"Yes." Aragorn smiled despite himself, "I can guarantee it."

"LITHIL!" A cry echoed through the Fellowships' camp as Merry and Pippin scuttled toward two elves walking towards them.

Lithil was transformed.

She was fully bathed, fully primed in elvish fashion, and outfitted in a fine dress that hung on her as if it was made from rain. It was a silvery green dress that matched almost perfectly with Legolas' tunic. The way he was presented now they could almost see the glowing outline of a circlet on his brow declaring that he was a prince—he looked regal, not like their daily companion. They walked towards the Fellowship arm in arm looking like they could walk straight up to a pair of thrones and claim them. This high brow appearance did not stop Merry and Pippin from running headlong into Lithil's legs and hugging them happily. Lithil smiled warmly at the Hobbits and repeatedly pet their curls and asked them how they liked the elven woods.

Aragorn looked carefully at her ears but only the tips of them shown through her hair and the tips looked scarred but at least a healthy color. In fact Lithil's general pallor was remarkably healthy…even glowing. When Legolas met the Ranger's eyes there was a strangely closed look in them that made Aragorn realize something had happened since the two elves had taken their time away. It had only been a few days and yet Aragorn knew that a world of change had happened.

Even Gimli came over to greet the elves and spoke gently to Lithil, asking how her ears were and if she had found anything in this elvish kingdom that she had been missing. He was referring to Legolas but when Lithil nodded and intertwined her fingers with her husband's there was something else that had not been said.

Later that night the Hobbits were lounging, eating, while Lithil and Legolas sat by the small stream that ran by their campsite. The elves did not have bedding on the ground but had indicated to their friends that they would be sleeping in the tree pallets like the rest of the elves. Nobody questioned that here, in this realm, Legolas and Lithil were an uncompromised unit and were never further than an arm's length from one another. Lithil was running her fingers over the water but froze as an elvish lament began to echo through the woods. A variation on the same song had been sung every night since they arrived but only Aragorn knew what it was and he had not announced it to the rest of the Fellowship.

"What _is_ that song?" Sam finally asked and Legolas responded, softly, "A lament for Gandalf."

A quietness passed over the group as they remembered their lost Wizard. Even Sam's attempt at a lament of his own did not stir the uneasy silence and the tension in the space doubled as Boromir walked over to Legolas and Lithil. The elf prince moved so that he was constantly between Boromir and Lithil, protecting her from the man, as had done in Boromir's terrible vision of the future. The gesture made Boromir flinch and he finally dropped to his knees before them and said, "We mourn Gandalf and prepare for a journey where more mourning awaits us. I must tell you, now, that I have seen what a tyrant I have been to the lady. Were it in my power to free her…I would. Alas that the power still sits in my father's hands. I want you both to know, to understand, that I will do everything in my power to convince my father to free her. This time of enslavement will end."

The elves gaped at Boromir and then stared at one another, smiles slowly forming. Just then Legolas did something so small that anyone besides Aragorn who was watching may have missed the action. Every so quickly, ever so gently, the prince had pressed his fingers against Lithil's stomach and Aragorn had felt the delicate tapestry of energy in the air change as Legolas maneuvered it…. _Into_ his wife. The elves, more than any Man, could sense the energy of life that surged through Middle Earth. They could feel the life in plants and animals and were so in tune with it that they could manipulate it. Most manipulates of energy could take an elf many thousands of years to master but some smaller feats with it came naturally to elves and were a part of their daily lives. There was one such manipulation, one such feat, Arwen had described to him many years ago but he had never seen. Arwen herself had never seen it because it had not occurred since her birth.

"Thank you, my lord Boromir." Lithil dipped her head and put one of her hands over her heart.

"Please…just accept this pledge that I shall never make a command against your wishes again." Boromir rose to his feet and left the elves alone. As soon as he was gone Lithil let herself lie back against the soft grass and she smiled up at the sky. Legolas reclined next to her and lovingly traced the line of her body with a flower while he sang so softly that Aragorn could not make out the song. When Legolas' tracing reached Lithil's stomach Aragorn watched closely and saw the Prince once more pause over it and send that energy of life pouring into Lithil.

"_You seem so surprised, my Wanderer." _Aragorn leapt all but out of his skin and looked to see where the lady Galadriel might be. He could not see her, but that did not mean that she could not see him.

"_Come into the pallet in the tree, I much desire to speak with you away from the ears of your Fellowship_."

Aragorn obeyed—it was wise to obey such a powerful creature as the Lady but he would have obeyed her even if she were a peasant because she was the grandmother of his beloved. When he climbed into the pallet where Galadriel was sitting, observing the Fellowship, he bowed but she held up a hand to stop him, "_You do not bow to me when we meet privately. My Arwen would make you my family, and I do not allow my family to bow to me in private."_

"_Yes, My Lady, but you can never insist that I stop showing you the respect you deserve_."

Galadriel smiled at his words as she watched Merry and Pippin splash one another in the water, edging ever closer to Lithil to try and bait her into their game, "_You have questions?"_

"_Many," _Aragorn admitted, "_And should you let me I would lay them all before you but many of them are not about this quest or the people on it. Many of them lie beyond the scope of even this decade."_

"_You would also ask me about my granddaughter." _Galadriel flicked her eyes to him and gestured that he should sit beside her, "_But as you already suspect I shall answer only questions about the quest and precious few questions at that."_

"_Then I shall carefully choose them." _Aragorn spent a moment in silence, watching the pranks of the Hobbits, and contemplating his questions for the Lady of Lorien, "_What has happened to Lithil?" _

"_Something you have never seen." _Galadriel mused cryptically, "_Something you have wondered about many nights as you thought about a future of your own. Lithil was healed by my hands and invited to stay in a private room with her husband. They were warned that here, in this place, light will shine through the darkness even if the darkness is oppressive. They were warned that life thrives here. But as young lovers usually do—they did not choose to heed the warnings. They spent the last few days utterly enthralled in one another and discovered something they thought impossible—the conception of an elfling."_

Aragorn's heart froze, "_An elfling? But one has not been born in….since…"_

"_Not since Arwen's birth, our Evenstar, our youngest member." _Galadriel's eyes seemed to see into the past for a moment, "_Two thousand, seven hundred and seventy eight years have passed since an elfling was born onto Middle Earth."_

Aragorn stared into the beautiful woods of Lorien and heard the gentle laughter of children in his head- a song the woods had been without for so many thousands of years. He thought that the woods, slowly being darkened by Sauron's evil, might be brought back to light entirely by something as pure as an elvish child. Rumor had circulated for so many years about the power of elvish children who were the most innocent, the purest creatures in the known world. _  
_

"_Legolas and Lithil are hardly older. Elrond's children and Thranduil's children are the youngest families in our people. Now they shall be surpassed by Thranduil's grandchild." _Galadriel smiled, "_You felt Legolas send energy to the child—it is our way. The father's contribute just as much as the mother to the development of an elfling by feeding the child his energy. In the coming days Legolas must devote much time to this practice or he will find himself feeling very inadequate when the company departs."_

"_Departs?...Will Lithil not come with us?"_

"_Not immediately. If she were to leave with the rest of you the child would almost certainly perish in a deadly skirmish. She will stay here with me and my people keeping her safe until it is the right time to send her into the dangerous parts of the world again." _

Aragorn stroked his pendant from Arwen without thinking and Galadriel rubbed his arm, "_Do not fear, should you have children with her you would not have to send them energy. Your children will never be elves, Estel."_

"_How will they survive being separated during this?" _Aragorn worried but Galadriel seemed unperturbed, "_They have been separated for much longer during much more difficult times. They will survive splendidly."_

"_And Boromir? What will he do when he discovers this? He might wish to give up his claim but if Denethor does not agree to free Lithil it will be both her and her child that much suffer the slavery." _ Aragorn blanched, "_Legolas would not stand for a child of his in shackles in Gondor—he would bring war to them and the elves would back him—no elf would see the first Elfling in an Age born into slavery."_

"_Then you see the problem at hand, Estel." _The lady sighed sadly, "_This is a powerful blessing that could finally help bring peace between Men and Elves, that could cement their ties to one another, or it could be the final wedge between the races that drive us to destroy one another and give Sauron reign over Middle Earth. Their child is far more important than they can conceive. _You_, Estel, must help your friends toward a peaceful end. If they cannot forge peace between the nations and you _do_ become king regardless of that then Arwen and any children you have with her will almost certainly be killed by the masses of hating humans_."

Aragorn's stomach sank to his knees, "_Is there no other way, my Lady?"_

"_There was never another way. This is why Elrond and I held off going to war for Lithil's freedom so many years ago—we saw that should she survive and become the symbol of peace that stronger bonds between Men and Elves would be forged than ever before. We saw her death would be a travesty of epic proportions, but we had faith in her strength, in her mate's strength, and in the strength of the peoples of this Earth who so long to be good but do not know how to be." _Galadriel held up a long finger, "_One more question."_

"_Will Frodo survive?"_

Galadriel looked pleased, "_You do not ask about yourself? You do not ask about the rest of your Fellowship?"_

"_Myself—I shall learn the fate of myself in due course. My life shall be my own to lead and I want nothing more than what you have already given me. As for the others I must be practical—Frodo is the one who matters—the others could not possibly hold the Ring. Without Frodo all is lost."_

"_Frodo will ultimately decide his own fate. But I will tell you this: A time will come when it seems that Frodo has gone off to choose death. When Samwise wishes to go with him—let him go too. Sam is stronger than you will ever guess… and when only Frodo can carry that Ring, it will be Sam who will be able to carry Frodo." _

Aragorn was dismissed from the Lady shortly thereafter and when he returned to the camp he walked over to the stream where Legolas and Lithil were splashing water at the Hobbits. The Ranger knelt before them and whispered quietly, "_My most sincere well-wishes to you both and may this elfling be born into a changed world."_

His two friends turned and regarded him with surprise, "_How did you know?"_

"_The Lady told me—I swear that this shall be your secret for however long you wish it to be a secret but the Lady also told me this: Spend as much time as you can with your child, Legolas, for the time will come for us to go and Lithil must stay here with the child for its own safety. Spend every moment you can with it now."_

Legolas' face blanched, "_The Lady said that?"_

"_Yes, my friend." _Aragorn reached out and clasped the elf's shoulder, "And I would take the advice."

"We shall." Legolas gracefully leapt to his feet and held out a hand for his wife, "Shall we retire, then, my love?"

"Immediately." She nodded and they raced off for the privacy of their pallet where prying eyes did not have to witness their special time alone with their unborn child. Aragorn watched them leave and envied them this happiness, strained though it was, but was pulled out of his thoughts by the disgruntled grunts of Pippin and Merry.

"Where are they off to?" Pippin pouted and Merry wagged his eyebrows, "To be alone."

* * *

In their pallet Lithil and Legolas curled together on a soft bed of moss and leaves that was more comfortable than the best down bed Thranduil's palace owned. They stripped off their clothes to remove all boundaries between themselves and their developing elfling and Legolas had two hands planted firmly on Lithil's still-flat stomach as he channeled everything he could into their child. It was not merely energy that the father contributed but personality as well—embedded in the energy Legolas sent his child were images of flowers and trees and perfect sunsets. He sent memories of hunting, of dancing, of singing, of kissing Lithil and feeling love take over his heart and make a prisoner out of it in the most blissful way anything could be made a prisoner. He sent images of horses, of apple orchards, of his father and his siblings, of his departed mother, of all the things he loved and cherished.

"_And you, my little one," _He whispered and pressed a kiss against the spot where a tiny, almost imperceptible bead of life had formed just days ago. He could sense it because it was alive but right now it was so very small that it was like trying to talk to a single ant. Yet for its small size its presence was, to its parents at least, immediately noticeable. Elves noticed the very moment life came into existence and monitored the development of their children from conception to birth and closely thereafter. Lithil and Legolas had been half dreaming when they felt the shift within her at the same time and both gasped in disbelief. Even now Legolas was awed and proud, "_And you, my littlest love, I cherish most of all."_

And he sent the child his indescribable feelings of joy at knowing that the child existed. Lithil would place her own hands over his sometimes and add to the energy being sent but mostly let Legolas enjoy his paternal role. While he focused on every imaginable happy, constructive thought to feed their child Lithil allowed herself a worry: Legolas would leave soon…._then_ what would happen?

Though Aragorn had not mentioned to them what, if anything, the Lady had said about their future Lithil got the very distinct impression that it was terribly dark.

Terribly dark….and uncomfortably close.

* * *

To Be Continued

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A/N- Review please! Remind me that you want more! : - )


	21. A Fragile Peace

A/N- On a roll !

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Chapter 20- A Fragile Peace

Within the comforting boundaries of Lothlorien, Lithil breathed easily and felt the joyful stirrings of her child. The Fellowship had been in the company of the elves for a month and just last week Galadriel had whispered to Lithil that her hospitality would extend for a month and a day. Tomorrow would be the last day of Galadriel's hospitality and the day that Lithil would once more be separated from Legolas. Although it had not been discussed with anyone within or without the Fellowship since Aragorn's words to them almost a month ago both Legolas and Lithil were heavy with the knowledge that their separation was imminent. They also both knew that it was time to tell their companions in the Fellowship what was going on between them.

Elves usually carried their children for a year and the maturation is slow, the child growing at a snail's pace with the continued and devoted aid of both the mother's and father's energy. Most elves were not prone to rushing the growth of their child, to pushing energy into it at a fast pace, but Legolas and Lithil had hardly been like most of their kin. They had survived a broken bond for a thousand years, they had survived unthinkable horrors, and had still managed to love purely. Their overwhelming love, their overwhelming belief in love and their unbroken spirits, had called forth the creation of an elfling during a time of terrible war… a time when few elves would even consider bringing an elfling into the world. Beyond the evil that loomed there was something else that never happened—Legolas was going to leave his wife to carry their child alone. This was unheard of in the world of elves—the father's contribution to a child was so important that none of them ever chose to leave.

"_You know that this day every single passing of every single moment pains me." _Legolas said to her as he stroked her hair behind her ears. Her ears were healed now, scarred but healed fully, and he was now able to look at them without flinching.

"_I know… you do not wish to leave." _Lithil nuzzled into his hand and tied the last strip of his shirt into a neat bow, "_But we well know not to be selfish."_

He pressed a hand against her stomach and felt the bulge that had begun to develop. With the amount of energy Legolas had been pouring into his child it was already large enough to cause its mother's body to adjust to keep it comfortable. Still, at a month old, it was still genderless and not able to project any energy back at its parents—it could merely accept what it was given and try to use it as well as possible to grow.

"_Yes, my love," _Legolas knelt and pressed a kiss against the swell, "_We have learned not to be selfish. I wish that I could stay with you and help you… but if I help you know and the Ring fails to be destroyed there will be no help I can offer to protect you or the child from The Dark One and his army. Now is the time to go and fight and make a peaceable world for this child to live in."_

He stood and helped Lithil tie back her hair and smooth her dress. She cupped his face and tried to memorize the lines of it, "Are you ready to emerge from our little cocoon and share the light of day with the Fellowship again?"

"As ready as I shall ever be." He kissed her palm and hoped she understood how much love he felt for her in that moment. He offered her his hand and helped escort her down the tree to where the Fellowship was beginning to pack for tomorrow's journey.

* * *

Gimli saw them first and humphed, trying to sound less happy than he was to see them, "Have the lord and lady finally deigned to grace us with their presence again? We've seen almost nothing of them since we crossed this border."

Aragorn nodded at the approaching couple and cast his eyes carefully over Lithil, noticing the slight difference in her frame, and embraced them both, "I am sorry to see this time end."

"As are we." Lithil spoke softly and Aragorn noticed that her voice was more musical than before as if her own state of grace had increased with her burden.

"So we really are leaving tomorrow?" Pippin walked over sadly and looked around the woods, "I like it here…"

"Don't whine, Pip." Merry elbowed him, "Perk up, our favorite lady-elf is back."

"I'd be careful saying that in these parts." Sam looked around the woods suspiciously, "That Pretty Elf Queen might hear and taken offense."

"I heard. I take offense." Gimli muttered and Lithil kissed his cheek, "I see you have warmed up to the Evil Elf Witch, Master Dwarf."

Gimli mumbled something indiscernible and started to wander off to finish sharpening his axe for the battle that awaited them. He only got a few steps when Lithil gently grabbed his arm, "Wait, please, Gimli…. We have something to say to the Fellowship and we would like everyone here."

Sam and Merry went to collect Frodo and Boromir while Pippin siddled up next to Lithil and leaned his head against her thigh, "You sound sad… is everything alright?"

"Yes, Pip." She ran her fingers through her curls, "Everything is fine, as fine as can be in these times, and soon you will understand a bit more why I sound so sad."

Lithil smiled as Pippin glowed under her gentle attentions and her heart twisted—she would miss the Hobbits greatly. They seemed to her like children themselves and she wondered at why such innocent, small creatures were being thrust into such a great, terrible evil. Boromir walked toward Lithil quietly and studied her carefully, he knew that he was unlikely to win back her trust anytime soon and felt guilty that he had broken it thoroughly. He watched her gently stroke Pippin's hair and felt his heart beat steadily again, as it had when he had been a boy of fifteen and had first realized how beautiful she was, and he knew that a part of him loved her. He knew they a part of him had always loved her, that controlling her was his way of trying to make that love real, but now he let go of the control and could see that the tighter he tried to hold onto her the further away he had pushed her. He had seen her stroke Faramir's hair the way she stroked Pippin's but could not remember ever receiving the same treatment—his brother was closer to her heart than he was. Perhaps there was something to be learned from these beings he felt were below him.

He smiled at the elves and hoped to win back some of the good nature he had spoiled.

When Frodo finally walked into the group they all sat around in a circle and the silence hung around them like an early morning fog. In its own time, it lifted, and Legolas spoke delicately, "We thank everyone for understanding our time spent apart and alone. It might have, at times, seemed selfish but we assure you that there was a greater interest being served than our own pleasures. It fills me with pride to announce to you, our friends, that something is happening on Middle Earth that has not happened in two thousand and seven hundred years."

"Sauron's rising!" Pippin offered but Merry cuffed his ears, "That isn't news, Pip!"

"No, Master Hobbit… _good news_ has come to Middle Earth that has not been here in many long years." Lithil smiled and laid a hand on her stomach, immediately Legolas laid his hand over hers and most of the group took a sharp intake of breath, "We shall be welcoming an elfling."

"An elfling? Like a baby elf?" Pippin asked and Legolas smiled warmly, "Yes, Master Pippin. That is precisely what it is."

"Oh that's great news then!" Pippin jumped up with Merry they did a quick jig, "Congratulations!"

Sam furrowed his brow, "Why did you say it hasn't happened in so long? Do you mean to say that there aren't no baby elves running around?"

"No, Sam." Lithil said lightly, "Not since the birth of the Lady Arwen of Rivendell over two thousand and seven hundred years ago."

"That's a might long time to not have babies." Sam mumbled, "Why didn't the elves have them?"

"Because the days were long and dark, elves did not feel it the proper atmosphere for children." Legolas explained, "And so shall our child know great darkness unless this Fellowship continues on their path. So we shall continue, and I shall not stop until I have fought for the light with my last breath."

Frodo met Lithil's eyes and they shared a long, silent moment, "You aren't coming with us, are you Lithil?"

"Not right now, Master Frodo." Lithil bowed her head, "The Lady has assured me that to leave tomorrow with the Fellowship would guarantee the death of our child but that if I wait here I shall soon rejoin you all when the most immediate danger has passed."

Everyone looked at Frodo who slowly nodded, "I think if we were to force you along knowing the child would die because of it then we would be more callous than Sauron- we are fighting for a safer world for children, we must do everything to ensure their safety."

Lithil let loose a sigh of relief—if Frodo had denied her request the rest of the Fellowship would have sided with him. From Frodo's eyes she turned her gaze to Boromir who was in shock.

"An…elfling?" Boromir choked out and Lithil nodded. Legolas began to glower dangerously at the Steward but Lithil put a hand on his chest that kept him in his chair, "Yes, Boromir. After many long years of feeling dead I felt so alive here that life took root. I cannot say it is by pure chance… elves choose to conceive, or choose not to, and both of us greatly desire this child."

Boromir chewed on his lip and ran his hand over his face, "How could you? You do not have your freedom yet and the contract dictates that any child of yours shall belong to the same slavery you endure. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"Irresponsible?" Legolas growled, "How dare you!"

Aragorn stood up and held up two hands of peace in front of both the Man and the Elf, "Peace! Peace! We must not become angry over things we cannot help! The child is living and so we must not say whether or not that is a good or bad thing, but we must consider that since the child lives it deserves a proper world. Can we not bond over the fact that a child's future is a most precious thing? That not just their child but _any_ child deserves to live without a threat in the South growing hungrier for it by the day? Keep peace over your own parts in this and focus on that—it is the Enemy in the South that we must unite against, not separate over the finer points of this _one_ child."

The group was silent and stunned, chewing over everyone's words, until Gimli grumbled, "It's going to be a blonde, pointy eared, tree-climbing little thing, and that to me is not as fine a creature as a small, hairy, bearded babe crawling in the dirt, but whether rock or tree becomes the child's bed it should not be hunted by shadows in the night. I say we aim our ire at the real problem."

Legolas' heart melted and he fell to his knees and embraced the scruffy dwarf, "Thank you, Gimli."

Lithil kissed the dwarf's cheek and he blushed a brilliant red and stuttered, "Enough of that you two, you'll have me as sentimental as an elf if you keep this up."

Boromir slept restlessly that night and kept waking to see Legolas holding two firm hands over Lithil's tiny bump and singing softly to it. He still thought that this was a terrible idea… perhaps the worst idea in long, sad history of bad ideas.

"_Trust in love rather than doubt, son of Denethor_." The Lady's voice echoed in his head and his heart threatened to burst… the lady had deigned to speak to him at last. He kept her words close to his heart and tried to sleep.

Even with Galadriel's advice, he did not sleep that night.

* * *

The next day came too soon. Legolas walked all the way to the boats with his hand still pressed against the swell of his baby. Eventually Lithil took his hand, kissed it, and told him to go help the Hobbits. For a moment she stood alone and her own two hands fell on top of her stomach.

Boromir walked up next to her and petted her hands quickly, pulling his touch away as fast as he had pressed it to her, and simply said, "I am happy to see you finally feel at peace."

"There is not peace." Lithil responded, "Not yet. But I would like it."

The Lady Galadriel walked up beside Lithil and signaled that the Fellowship should line up, it was time for their gifts to be given to them. Legolas held up his hands to refuse the Lady's gift, "In keeping her safe, you give me a gift so great I can never repay it."

"If that is the case, my Woodland Prince, accept another gift just to make me happy." She smiled at him and handed him the bow, "A bow of the Galadhrim, fit for the skill of our Woodland Kin."

Lithil could tell that Legolas was enthralled with the bow and she laughed lightly as he strummed the string and pretended to take aim at the top of Gimli's head. The dwarf was muttering shyly to Galadriel when it was his turn to receive a gift and finally the lady leaned her head down to hear his request. Lithil was surprised to see the Elf Queen take a small dagger from her belt and dart it towards her hair—if Lithil hadn't known any better she would have thought that a Dwarf had asked for a lock of hair from the Lady of Light.

Soon the Fellowship were in the boats and Legolas turned to look at Lithil one last time. He knew if he walked over to her and kissed her one last time that he would lose his nerve to leave her and so he touched his fingers to his brow, kissed them, and offered them to her.

"_Farewell, I know in my heart that I shall see you soon."_

Lithil touched her outstretched fingers to her lips and a single tear dripped down her cheek, "_Be safe, my love."_

Galadriel put a hand on Lithil's shoulder as the Fellowship disappeared down the river and Lithil could feel the Elf Queen's power surge through her body like a gulp of warm soup, instantly calming her and soothing her worried heart, "_He was right, my little flower, it will not be long until you see him again but the circumstances of the reunion will be dark indeed. Do not ache for it too harshly—take this time to enjoy your new babe, to let it grow, to feel all the awe that you should feel."_

"_When will I see him again, my Lady? Will you not let me know?"_

"_You shall see him when the elves march to war for Man." _Galadriel flatly revealed, "_It will be the first time in history we send an expecting elf into battle with neither sword nor shield."_

Lithil paled, "_Neither sword nor shield?"_

"_Where you are going…you shall not need them." _Galadriel petted Lithil's soft blonde hair, "_You shall need all the strength of character that you can muster—so use this time to collect it, to steel yourself, to make your child strong enough to survive the journey it must make with you."_

Lithil wrapped both of her arms around her stomach, protectively, as if she could shield her child with just the strength in her body but she knew that what Galadriel said was more important—Lithil, of all elves in the world, knew what it was to have a strong mind and a strong soul beyond a strong body. Bodies could fail but a mind, a heart, could only be broken with the permission of its owner.

And Lithil never intended to break…especially not now that another life depended on her.

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To Be Continued.

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A/N- two in one day! How about that? Keep reviewing! Keep pestering me to continue! Next stop: March 3rd in the Great Years….. also known as? ….anyone? Anyone?


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